Jane Addams Speech Rhetorical Devices

The well known and respected activist Jane Addams wrote and delivered a speech in honor of George Washington’s birthday to Chicago’s Union League Club on February 23, 1903. Within the course of her speech she affirms her views on the significance of George Washington’s legacy. In addition, she uses George Washington’s legacy to make a point about the then-modern day society that she and the audience lived in. In order to effectively communicate her point, Jane Addams uses lots of rhetorical questions, well chosen diction, imagery/illustration, definition, and forms of persuasion throughout her speech. In the beginning of Jane Addams speech, she describes and defines what kind of man George Washington is. She uses descriptive phrases in order to emphasize her point. When she says “he is a man who refuses to have his sense of justice distorted”, she is showing how dedicated he was to his cause. Her diction/word choice throughout the beginning of the speech emphasizes how Washington was a great man. Phrases like “a trumpet call” as well as the use of multiple uses of “national” or “nation” provide an extremely positive connotation when regarding Washington. “National” and “nation” also create a sense of patriotism and nationalism because she is referring to the country that they all have in common. George Washington is a symbol of the United States and she is speaking to the workers of America who all have a dream that they can work and make their …show more content…
She starts off with carefully chosen diction that create a sense of pride, along with illustration/imagery that defines what type of man George Washington was. She then transitions into more imagery and persuasion in the form of rhetorical questions that allow her audience at the Union League Club to elevate themselves beyond their own mind and ask themselves “what would Washington