Rhetorical Analysis Of Speech By Florence Kelley

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Florence Kelley was a social worker who fought against child labor and to better working conditions. On July 22, 1905 she delivered a speech, in Philadelphia, to members of the Nation American Women Suffrage Association before their convention was held. Through her speech she is informing people about the dangers and encouraging others to support regulations that will end child labor. Another message she was sending through the speech is that along with their support they can also better the conditions that women work in. The people she delivered the speech to contains mothers who have their own children, elder females that have siblings who may be working, and females that work. She wants these members, whether they know of a child working …show more content…

She uses it three times, the first time was, “ Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working on textile mills…” Then in the next paragraph, “...and while we sleep little white girls will be working tonight in the mills in those states, working eleven hours a night.” Finally, “And they will do so tonight, while we sleep.” Repetition was used to emphasize the point that while plenty of people would be sleeping without a care there were children working in very hazardous conditions and risking their lives. It was also used to get the message across that whether they had paid attention to child labor before or not, now they were fully aware of it. Through this rhetorical strategy Kelley is trying to encourage readers and her audience to support regulations for child labor. If they fight together then more regulations will be enforced, eventually ending child labor. The effect of this strategy was placing the idea that many children would be working just to survive while these people are sleeping carefree. To achieve their survival they had to work late, riks their lives daily, and work in perilous