Question

Which type of figurative language is used in the following line from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s letter? "This movement is nourished by the contemporary frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination."

Answer 1

Figurative speech would mean "figures of speech" - both terms refer to the same linguistic manipulations.

It's the use of a metaphor, analogy, simile, or other speech tools to enhance and lend imagery and understanding to what's being said.

One example from the famous speech in question is the following line:

'I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed; We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.'

In this line, a nation cannot actually rise up as Dr. King states. A nation is an inanimate object and has no free will. It cannot literally rise up any more than a box or a rock can. The phrase is meant to convey that the people of the nation would embrace change and strive for a higher ideal, living up to the expectations we set for ourselves as a society. This complete and complex thought is elegantly and eloquently expressed with the simple phrase of 'this nation will rise up' instead.

There are other examples in that same line as well. 'We hold these truths to be self-evident.'

Truths cannot actually be held.

Truths are an abstract concept, not a concrete object, and therefore they cannot be 'self-evident.'

These are figures of speech, and they are collectively examples of figurative speech.