Rhetorical Analysis On Florence Kelley

Improved Essays
2011 Rhetorical Analysis An American social and political reformer, Florence Kelley, avidly fought for child labor and woman suffrage. Kelley delivered a speech regarding child labor before the Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905. Kelley asserts that child labor is inhumane and morally wrong. Kelley supports this claim by appealing to her audience through the use of statistics and logic. As well, as eliciting strong and overwhelming emotions from her given audience. Kelley establishes an effective argument to advocate a reform of child labor laws. Kelley crafts her argument through the ingenious use of statistics and logical thought to convey her understanding and establish her

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    How would you feel if you were to work eight hours and over while other people are sleeping? Do you approve or disapprove of child labor? Florence Kelley was a United States social worker and reformer who fought successfully for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women. She uses rhetorical strategies or devices to express her message about child labor to her audience. The rhetorical strategies or devices she used were: inclusive language, emotional language, and sarcasm.…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    She adopts a cautionary tone in order to instill knowledge and raise awareness in women and the voting men by using passionate diction, comparative syntax, and rhetorical questions. Kelly starts her speech by using metonymy when saying “[w]e have, in this country, two million children under the age of sixteen years who are earning their bread”. By using this, she is able to make the money being earned a negative, supporting her objective. The audience is able to assume that by the children “earning their bread” they are then earning their right to eat.…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the convention of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association, Florence Kelley, A United States social worker, gave a speech about the nation’s current child labor status. Throughout the speech, Kelley uses various rhetorical devices and specific language to convey her thoughts on child labor while making a connection to women’s suffrage all at once. The significance of this message is to encourage women to support their right to vote. To begin with, Kelley’s use of pathos to induce logos helps her proceed into the mindset of the women in the audience. She begins by describing how children are “under the sweating system making artificial flower for us to buy.”…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Among all my essays that exhibited varying degrees of success from effectively investigating Pudd'nhead Wilson to neglecting half the prompt, my greatest essay analyzed Florence Kelley's rhetorical strategies in her speech denouncing child labour. Opening with historical background on the necessity for a workforce in the early twentieth century, the introductory paragraph investigated the era's controversy regarding child labour and Kelley's position on the topic, citing Kelley's "ardent and audacious tone… to the mothers of society." Following the SOAPS-tone of the exposition, my thesis utilized incendiary language decrying the "horrifying conditions of child labour" while also boldly highlighting Kelley's "allusive comparison between the…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Barbara J. King introduces her argument with a very serious and riveting story about a mother dolphin in distress over the corpse of her baby and uses this anecdote to grab the audience’s attention, appeal to their pathos, and intrigue the audience to continue reading. Her argument is an ambiguous case because even though the two topics of animals and mourning over a loved one would each seem to be honorable, a large portion of the audience she is targeting either doesn’t know or have not formed an opinion with the subject that animals can mourn as well as humans, while others simply disagree with her. Therefore, she must have this kind of introduction to try and win the attention of her readers.…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Florence Kelley, a strong advocate for women’s rights, spoke with tons of passion behind her words. At the time, women not only fought for their own rights, but also children as well. Being a social worker, she saw how wrong it was for children to be working grueling 12-hour days. During the National American Women Suffrage Association in Philadelphia Kelley spoke on behalf of the children. She makes great points using ethos, logos, and pathos on why child labor should be illegal and how women can help stop it.…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Referencing frightening statistics and inadequate labor laws, Florence Kelley immediately conveyed the severity of factory children's situations. Kelley's use of census data illustrated the rapidly increasing magnitude of children in the workforce, asserting that child labor was all too common. Likewise, her examples of states with few or…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Florence Kelley: Rhetorical Analysis Essay In the 20th century many woman and little girls were forced to work in horrendous conditions. Florence Kelley, a social worker and reformer has expressed her disappointment through a speech she delivered in 1905 and passionately and successfully fought against the labor policies and work conditions through out the nation. In her speech at the National American Woman Suffrage Association Kelly argues that child labor laws should be changed and work conditions for women should be improved by illustrating the day to day lives of child labor and by comparing conditions all over America and between all classes of people.…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Florence Kelley's Speech

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages

    During Florence Kelley speech before the convection of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905, she announces to the government that child labor laws in the south are too severe for young kids to handle. In her speech she uses an amount of imagery to send a sort of emotion to her crowd, and also uses questions to make her audience think about what she’s talking about in her speech. She uses this tactic to make her crowd feel sympathy, in order for her audience to see her point. During her speech she explained to her audience the different types of consequences that could occur if women were not given their rights. Florence Kelley fought for both child labor laws and woman suffrage during the speech…

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis: The Help by Kathryn Stockett The Help is a novel written in 2009 by Kathryn Stockett that has been featured on the New York Time’s best-sellers list. The story is set in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s and tells the story of black maids working in white households. The story addresses issues such as racism and gender equality roles.…

    • 1642 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Each one of the aforementioned is presented in a light of logos, as it’s hard to deny the authenticity of her claim. While the fact that child labor is heinous is common place knowledge, Kelley uses imagery to depict the situation in order to truly spur a massive movement. Similar to Malcolm Gladwell’s point in “Small Change,” Kelley recognizes that a collective group simply needs a strong enough motivational and inspirational spur to create an entire reform movement, and she takes this fact and paints images that depict the direness of the situation. The audience, from the imagery, themselves, gets placed in the “textile mills” or “shoe factories” or “offices,” places notorious for ill-conditions during the twentieth century. These images, while simple, explode a picture into the audience member’s minds where they can picture the cobwebbed corners and dust covered machines.…

    • 1483 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In my community, you must be sixteen years old to get a job, and rarely does a sixteen year old work more than a couple hours a day, a couple shifts a week. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the issue of child labor, awful working conditions, and low wages were major concerns. By using a forceful tone, Kelly argues that child labor laws are important and necessary all around the country for the benefit of all the citizens. Kelly discusses the truth about the negatives of child labor by using specific word choice. In describing the dangers of the work force, she uses words like “deafening” and “toil” to emphasize the appalling conditions that these children were subjected to.…

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    During the Progressive Era, women began reforms to address issues in society, and one of the most prominent reform group was the National American Woman Suffrage Association. As president of the group, Carrie Chapman Catt actively campaigned for the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In the winter of 1917, she addressed the Congress about the proposed suffrage amendment (History.com). To urge the arrogant politicians to pass the women’s suffrage amendment to the Constitution, Catt not only induces fear and culpability, but the language she employs more importantly establishes herself as a credible individual by aligning with respected figures and emulating the politicians’ style of speech.…

    • 1316 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Brimmer 1 Paige Brimmer Mrs. King AP English 22 August 2015 United States social worker and reformer, Florence Kelley, in her speech at the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22nd, 1905, illuminates her views on women and children’s rights. Kelly’s purpose is to enlighten the audience of the lack of rights present for these members of society. Kelly intentionally uses syntax, diction, and imagery to motivate the audience to alleviate these citizens. Kelly effectively uses syntax to establish a sense of trust between the audience and herself.…

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The role children have played in the history of America has changed drastically over the years. In most cases, for the better, but that is not true for all children. In the early years, children were put to work, some even as indentured servants, others alongside their parents. They were made to work long hours under bleak circumstances. The industrial revolution saw the continued abuse of children.…

    • 717 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays