Rhetorical Analysis Of Florence Kelley's Speech

The issue of women’s rights and child labor has been a challenging one since the early civilizations. Its effects have changed history, impacted women every day, and will undeniably last a long time in the future. Throughout history, specifically in recent centuries, courageous women have taken a powerful stand against the oppressive social prejudices they faced every day. Florence Kelley, a United States social worker, passionately fought for child labor and enfranchisement of women in the 1900s. In her speech before the convention of the National American Women Suffrage Association, Kelley attempted to raise awareness for the termination of child labor in the United States and ultimately persuade legislatures to enfranchise women. Her essential goal of empowering women is apparent in her transforming tone from critical to passionate. However, Kelley was aware that in those oppressing times, her goals could only be achieved by the complete support of women; therefore, she clearly coveys her persuasive speech by deliberately expressing emphatic and vivid descriptions of the young children’s state, appealing to the audience’s guilt, and repeating key words and phrases to emphasis her message.
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Kelley was determined to indicate that every single person in a society is equally responsible for the atrocious conditions of child labor. For example, Kelley says, “For the sake of the children, for the Republic in which these children will vote after we are dead, and for the sake of our cause, we should enlist the workingmen voters, with us, in this task of freeing the children from toil!” Kelley puts this colossal responsibility on adults and reveals their inherent unawareness of their influence on the matter thus successfully impugning her audience’s morals and hopes to instigate a stronger stance from women in the