Rhetorical Analysis Of Speech By Florence Kelley

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Work is required to earn the money to provide the necessities of life, but this duty should never be given to children. In her speech, Florence Kelley uses logos, pathos, and a shift to voting rights to build her argument of why child labor laws need to be enforced nationwide. The first way the author builds her argument is through logos, a logical appeal. Kelley utilizes an assailment of facts and statistics to lead her assertion. This is effective because of the shockingly large number of children working absurd and miserable hours. At this time in history, there were “two million children under the age of sixteen” working to provide for their families, and some kids beginning labor at the tender ages of “six and seven years (in the cotton …show more content…

This speech is being delivered in Philadelphia to a convention of vigorous women who are willing to fight for their desires. An emotional appear is used to target the nurturing side of each and every woman in attendance. The adults of the United States are sound asleep while the sweet, innocent children are slaving away in factories. Kelley even goes as far as to criticize the women for ignoring this fight while “the children make [their] shoes in the shoe factories; knit [their] stockings, [their] knitted underwear in the knitting factories.” The author intends to use this appeal to provoke the motherly instincts of the attendees to join her and her cause. The third, and final, device Florence Kelley uses to build her argument is a shift in topic. Her speech is delivered to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, a group primarily concerned with the equality of voting laws. She vows to use her right to petition “in every possible way until the right to ballot is granted.” By referring to a common goal shared by the author and her audience, a sense of trust is established between the two parties. This collects extra support for her main cause, child labor laws. Children are meant to run, play, and be free, not work excessive hours in a heinous factory. By using logos, pathos, and a shift in topic, Florence Kelley effectively erects her argument to vote for, and create, child labor laws

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