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Rhetorical Analysis On Florence Kelley

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Rhetorical Analysis –Florence Kelley Speech Florence Kelley delivered a speech to the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1905. Her speech is a plead for improving the existing child labor laws and working conditions. Throughout her speech, Florence Kelley utilizes many rhetorical strategies to convey her message about child labor laws, these strategies include: appeal to logos, parallel structure, and anecdote. Kelley uses appeals to logos throughout her speech in order to sway her audience. For example, in the first sentence of the speech, she states, “two million children under the age of sixteen years” are earning their living. The alarming statistics are a shock to the audience that appeals to their emotions. The sheer number of children having to work sets the audience up to realizing the importance in taking action against the issue. Furthermore, Kelley declares girls of age seven “may work eleven hours” throughout the night. The audience's heartstrings are pulled, as children of such …show more content…

Within the body of her speech, Kelley starts off each of three paragraphs with, “in Alabama,” “in Georgia,” or “in Pennsylvania.” Following each state, she describes the varying, but untimely horrifying labor laws in each state. The use of the strategy allows Kelley to compare the states and prove to her audience the wide extent of the issue. By showing how awful the labor laws are in each state, the audience realizes that something must be done in order to stop the occurrence. Kelley also uses repetition of the phrase “while we sleep” in three different paragraphs. This phrase is paired with the horrifying conditions the children will face during the night. The purpose of the strategy is to guilt the audience in that while they are enjoying sleep, little girls are being labored long hours through the night making goods the audience will likely

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