USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -“Cash a check” is a metaphor used for the promise Caucasian Americans made to guarantee equality and freedom for African Americans, but “insufficient funds” mark is the metaphor to display that Caucasian Americans broke the promise and they technically “owe” the freedom to African Americans.

Detailed explanation-2: -King uses an analogy to illustrate America’s broken promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to “her citizens of color.” (An analogy is a case of reasoning or arguing from parallel cases.) What is this analogy? A promissory note–a check that has come marked “insufficient funds."

Detailed explanation-3: -When he constructed the text of his “I Have a Dream” speech, he used the metaphor of a bad check to demonstrate the economic injustice that so many faced. He took a complex problem and translated it into practical pocketbook terminology: “We’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check.

Detailed explanation-4: -By far the most common metaphors used in the speech are those of nature. Dr. King uses metaphors of mountains, valleys, deserts, oases, stones, solid rocks, quicksand, islands, oceans, waters, streams, wind, whirlwinds, and storms.

Detailed explanation-5: -King’s purpose in using the extended metaphor about the check: To demonstrate that promises were made and not kept, to illustrate that freedom and opportunity should be limitless, and that there is no reason why a country like the U.S. should be “out of” either one.