Margaret Sanger The Children's Era Speech Analysis

The argument over a woman’s right to choose over the life of an unborn baby has been a prevalent issue in America for many years. As a birth control activist, Margaret Sanger is recognized for her devotion to the pro-choice side of the debate as she has worked to provide sex education and legalize birth control. As part of her pro-choice movement, Sanger delivered a speech at the Sixth International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control Conference in March of 1925. This speech is called “The Children’s Era,” in which she explains how she wants the twentieth century to become the “century of the child.” Margaret Sanger uses pathos throughout her speech as she brings up many of the negative possibilities that unplanned parenthood can bring for both children and parents. She questions society’s actions to boost the clarity of why pro-choice is beneficial to the advancement of the “century of the

Sanger connects raising children to growing a garden and does so in an effective, coherent way. By using a metaphor like this, the audience is able to understand that learning “the lesson of the gardener” is directly related to supplying a child with a safe environment with prepared parents. This analogy helps the audience understand that if parents don’t know how to provide and properly care for a child, the child will be cheated out of a happy and healthy life (Sanger). Rhetorical appeals and devices are necessary for all types of literature, including speeches. The use of these appeals and devices varies from speech to speech depending on the speaker’s purpose, relationship with the audience, situation, and intentions for the mood of the speech. In “The Children’s Era” by Margaret Sanger, the rhetorical appeal of pathos and device of analogy were important in order for her to get the reaction she wanted from her