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How To Write A Rhetorical Analysis Of Speech By Florence Kelley

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Within the late 19th century, child labor in America was at an all time high. During this time, many suffragettes took to the cause along with fighting vehemently for women’s rights. One of these inspirational women was Florence Kelley. On July 22nd, 1905 at the National American Woman Suffrage Association’s convention, Kelley delivered a strong speech regarding child labor and how the people should stand against it. In this speech, Florence Kelley uses a plethora of rhetorical strategies; including informal language and repetition, to convince the listener of her argument; the people need to stand up and stop child labor. Many essays, reports and even some speeches like Kelley’s, refrain from using words such as “we” or “I” for the sake …show more content…

A technique often overlooked, Kelley utilizes the repetition of some parts of her speech to drive her points into the minds of the listeners. One of these such phrases, is “Tonight while we sleep.” Kelley first says this to open paragraph three, and then again to end paragraph five. By repeating this particular phrase, Kelley elaborates on her already analyzed examples of actual children going to work late in the evening, and her repetition of the phrase reminds her listeners of that picture, and the long night of work they will have to endure. This phrase contributes to that picture, and the fact that it is repeated continually reminds the listener of child labor, and the utter awfulness that goes on “while we sleep.”
Florence Kelley’s speech about child labor at the National American Woman Suffrage Association’s convention, uses many rhetorical strategies in order to get people involved in the cause of potentially eradicating it all together. By using such strategies as informal language and repetition, along with many others; Kelley paints a picture of how abominable child labor is for each listener and explains that the issue cannot be

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