Rhetorical Analysis On Florence Kelley

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Throughout Florence Kelley’s 1905 speech to the Philadelphia Convention of the National American Women Suffrage Association, she emphasizes the need to alter the existing working conditions for young children as a necessary change in society. Repeating key concepts, introducing numerous examples of horrendous conditions and state policies, and extolling the virtues of laws curtailing the workday, Kelley develops a highly effective argument that pulls her audience into the issue and invites them to join her efforts. Utilizing forceful emotional appeals to the consciences of her audience, Kelley urges her audience to empathize with the victims of the labor policies. For example, in the opening sentence of her speech, Kelley gives the audience an idea of the scope of the problem that over “two million children …show more content…

In the body of her speech, Kelley uses parallel structure to start each paragraph, emphasizing the similar injustice of the laws in “in Alabama,” “in Georgia,” and “in Pennsylvania.” This notion of unfairness is furthered by her diction when she simultaneously praises the Unites States as a “great industrial” country while condemning many state laws as a “great evil.” Additionally, Kelley uses the oxymoron of “pitiful privilege” to describe the hypocritical nature of New Jersey’s laws. Finally, she calls her audience into action with a transition from narration into firm assertion. After describing the horrible nature of legislation “enabling girls of fourteen years to work all night” and little girls and boys of “under twelve years of age” to spend their developing years in factories, Kelley ties her ample evidence to her concrete goal: women’s rights. Including her audience in her discussion, Kelley affirms that both the audience and she are in agreement together on the issue when she asserts they “do not wish

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