A Rhetorical Analysis Of Florence Kelley's Speech

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Florence Kelley: Rhetorical Analysis Florence Kelley was an extremely intelligent woman. In 1905, she delivered a speech in Philadelphia at a convention for the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Throughout her speech, Kelley makes very important and valid points about child labor. Through the use of repetition, oxymorons, parallelism, and other rhetorical devices, Florence conveys her message to her audience efficiently.
In the second paragraph of her speech, Kelley uses parallelism to show a list of all the wage earning classes that increased rapidly (lines 11-16). She begins by saying that the class who showed the most increase was fourteen to twenty year old girls. She then goes on to say that no other class (although …show more content…
By saying this, the audience is compelled to feel remorseful for the young girls.
At the end of the sixth paragraph, there is a very obvious oxymoron that is used to show the irony of the matter at hand. Kelley starts off by informing the audience that New Jersey used to permit children to work all through the night, because the law that stated that women and children were required to stop work at six in the evening was revoked. She states, “Boys and girls, after their 14th birthday, enjoy the pitiful privilege of working all night long,” (lines 45-47). The audience knows that working all night long is not a privilege, but yet that is how the young girls are told to see the situation. In paragraph nine, Kelley uses the strategy of dehumanizing the children to make it evident that that was basically how the children were being treated, and to again enforce guilt upon the audience. She says, “Little beasts of burden, robbed of school life that they may work for us,” (lines 82-83). By saying this, Kelley reveals how the children aren’t getting the traditional childhood they deserve because they are being treated like something other than children. They don’t attend school because they are too busy working for adults, making things that aren’t even essential, let alone necessary; such things like hats, pins, and artificial

Rhetorical Analysis Of Florence Kelley's Speech

In Florence Kelley’s speech she uses several different rhetorical devices to convey her message to her audience. Through the use of these devices Kelley made her audience feel guilty, made them feel like she was one of them, and also lead her audience from one point to another. One thing that also helped Kelley was her audience. She gave this speech at a National American Woman Suffrage Association convention. This means her audience was most likely all women and therefore the fact of child labor…

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A Rhetorical Analysis Of Florence Kelley's Speech

Florence Kelley, through her brilliant use of rhetorical strategies, brings awareness to the public of a tragedy plaguing the nation. Her speech on the hazards of child labor and the importance of women’s suffrage coherently describes the dangers of everyday life and the solution to the turmoil. By using repetitions, the laws and the atrocities the laws allow, and the stark contrast of the consumer versus the producer, Kelley crafts her argument and uses and emotional appeal to draws her audience…

Words 535 - Pages 3

Rhetorical Analysis Of Florence Kelley's Speech

Florence Kelley once delivered a speech back in 1905 showcasing the abuse children were working through. She was a suffragette who called for reforms on several topics, including one about child labor laws. Florence Kelley fought for the children liberation from these unmoral working laws during a speech made at the National American Woman Suffrage Association, thus giving more of a reason to allow for women to vote. By using different tactics in her speech, she was able to convey a sense of guilt…

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Rhetorical Analysis Of Florence Kelley's Speech

While discussing child labor laws with her fellow women’s rights activists, Florence Kelley wrote a speech made to strike guilt and empathy in the hearts of the women that heard her speak. In this speech, she used guilt driven sentimental appeals and colorful diction to persuade the audience to consider the possibilities of women being given more political involvement. Her presented facts and opinions were an influential tool in elaborating her message; her audience was overflowing with women, bubbling…

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A Rhetorical Analysis Of Florence Kelley's Speech

Florence Kelley, a United States social worker and reformer, in her speech brought forth at the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia (NAWSA), proposes the reinvention of the little or nonexistent child labor laws in the United States. Kelley’s rhetorical strategies such as logistically comparing and contrasting states’ laws and voicing a demanding call to action, urge suffragists to create a movement curtailing these abusive practices. Kelley employs logistical…

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A Rhetorical Analysis Of Speech By Florence Kelley

In the original essay, I analyzed Kelley's ability to establish credibility and her use of emotional appeal. I examined the tone in which she addressed the audience and her vast knowledge of the child workforce system to determine that Florence Kelley was extremely qualified to make the assertions she made. I also reviewed the way she played with the audience’s emotions to make them more likely to listen to her claims. I choose these two points as the focus of my essay because…

Words 515 - Pages 3