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Rhetorical Analysis Of Florence Kelley's Speech

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In the twenty-first century, there seems to be less news regarding child labor and women’s suffrage in developed countries. However, long ago, in the 1900s, the United States was suffering from such an issue too. In 1905, Florence Kelley gave a speech in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about the relationship between child labor and women’s suffrage. She spoke in an urgent tone to government officials and the general public through descriptive language and punctuation to evoke emotions, continuous rhetorical questions to reinforce her purpose, repetition to juxtapose a child labor’s life to those of adults about her purpose of abolishing child labor as well as giving women their suffrage. Kelley begins her speech by introducing the working conditions of child laborers through descriptive language. Kelley’s use of the word “deafening” to describe the sounds of the machines in the factory creates a negative connotation. By appealing to the general public's natural empathy as parents, Kelley highlights the fact that no parent would want their child to be subjected to such loud and harmful working conditions, especially when they are working overnight. Furthermore, Kelley uses an exclamation mark when she mentions that …show more content…

By repeating the word “they”, she is making sure that her audience understands that children are a different group of people who are working hard to produce the various items that adults buy.. Kelley is making her audience feel ashamed for letting children work for them instead of having fun with their friends and receiving education. With this clear distinction, Kelley is essentially calling for her audience to take action regarding the issue of both child labor and women’s suffrage. She argues that because of women's lack of voting rights, children are working for them and sacrificing their childhood, thus, she urges her audience to address both issues

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In Florence Kelley’s speech, she states her reasons why child laboring should be a law and should be banned. In her speech, Kelley uses many rhetorical devices. But three stood out the in my point of which was diction, details/description and she evokes the sympathy towards the audience before the convention of the NAWSA in Philadelphia on July 22. As you read the speech, Kelley illustrates the use of pathos; in which evokes the audience and readers to sympathy. As she said, “The children make our shoes in the shoe factories; they knit our stockings, our knitted underwear in knitting factories.

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On July 22nd, 1905, Florence Kelley, a United States social worker and reformer who fought successfully for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women, delivered a speech on child labor before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia. The purpose of her speech was to convince her audience that the only way to stop child labor was by allowing women the right to vote. Florence Kelley uses certain rhetorical strategies, such as pathos, diction, and an extensive use of figurative language, to appeal to her audience and accomplish her goal. Kelley’s speech is composed of a substantial amount of emotional appeals to aid her in connecting with her intended audience. In paragraph four she says, “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy.”

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Children from as young as the age of 6 began working in factories, the beginning of their exploitation, to meet demands of items and financial need for families. In Florence Kelley’s speech before the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia 1905, Kelley addresses the overwhelming problem of child labor in the United States. The imagery, appeal to logic, and the diction Kelley uses in her speech emphasizes the exploitation of children in the child labor crisis in twentieth century America. Kelley’s use of imagery assists her audience in visualizing the inhumanity of the practice.

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This impact only furthers her audience's drive to act or boycott the textile industry they contribute to. Kelley, through utilizing statistics, connects and unites her cause with the concerns of her audience. Her audience’s primary concern, being a suffrage convention, is equality between men and women, so by pointing out a disproportionate amount of girls working compared to men, it manages to connect the issue of child labor to suffrage. “No other portion of the wage earning class increased so rapidly from decade to decade as young girls from fourteen to twenty years” no contingent so doubles from census period to census period (both by percent and by count of heads), as does the contingent of girls between twelve and twenty years of age”. Kelley, through this evidence, targets her audience’s primary concern.

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Kelley continues to explain the increases in child labor, as well as the children now taking up the role as breadwinners. As the speech progresses, she also addresses different scenarios that appeal to the audience’s sentiments such as,” Tonight we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in the textile

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The women have a distinct emotion of being confused, but Florence Kelley isn’t going to evoke more emotion yet, instead she will proceed to manipulate their confusion with logic to highlight her claim. Florence Kelley transitions into an illuminating position in her third paragraph, she says, “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy”(Kelley paragraph 3). While she illuminates the problem, she also draws in the audience with her diction. The use of “We” ties in the introduction and shows how while they are fast asleep children are put in danger to provide their basic wants. Everyone is the problem including the women because their inability to vote doesn’t affect their duty to stop injustice.

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After using such strong diction, repetition, and metaphors to create an emotional bond with her audience and a pull to take action, Florence Kelley hits them with a solution that none of them would want to ignore. Her timing and strategic use of words is what allows her to pull this off, seamlessly shifting the spotlight from child labor reform to women's

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Child Labor Analysis Child Labor was one of Florence Kelley’s main topics at a speech she gave in Philadelphia during a convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Kelley talks about all the horrors children were going through and the injustices they were suffering. She talks of the conditions children working in, the hours they were going in, and all in all, how wrong child labor was. Her purpose for this was to gain support of people to petition for the end of child labor. Kelley’s appeals to Ethos, Pathos and Logos through the use of great rhetoric is what allows her to achieve her purpose.

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Throughout her speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association on July 22, 1905, Florence Kelley emphasizes the need to modify working conditions for children across the United States. During her speech, the social reformer encourages the women attending the convention in Philadelphia to join her in the fight for labor rights for children. By adopting a stern and persuasive tone, Kelley argues that the exploitation of child labor is a significant issue within the United States. Kelley employs plural pronouns to represent the collective responsibility society has in ending child labor, repetitive phrases to emphasize how widespread the issue is, and rhetorical questions to suggest possible ideas of reform. Most importantly, Kelley utilizes the plural pronoun “we” throughout her speech to establish a sense of unity among the men and women in America and children subject to child labor.

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To further enforce this idea, Kelley says that children could “enjoy the pitiful privilege of working all night long” (44-45). Through simple rhetorical devices, juxtaposition, imagery, and an oxymoron, Kelley is able to involve the audience and further emotionally tie them to the plight that these children

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In another attempt to cause the audience to feel empathy, Kelley warns that the child workers could face hearing problems from working in the loud mills and factories while those listening to her stand by and

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In America’s history, child labor was fiercely criticized. Many activists of child labor laws and women’s suffrage strived to introduce their own viewpoints to the country. Florence Kelley was a reformer who successfully changed the mindset of many Americans through her powerful and persuading arguments. Florence Kelley’s carefully crafted rhetoric strategies such as pathos, repetition, and sarcasm generates an effective and thought provoking tone that was in favor of women’s suffrage and child labor laws. Florence Kelley uses pathos continuously throughout her speech.

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