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The Rhetorical Analysis Of Florence Kelley's Speech

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Florence Kelley was a United States social worker and reformer who fought successfully for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women. Throughout her speech to the Philadelphia Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she stresses the importance of changing the working conditions that are in place for children. By using child labor as her baseline, Kelley is able to talk about her main point, which is her suggestion for women’s rights with the help of repetition, strong word choice, and opposition. Kelley starts off her speech with a bang by constantly repeating herself, which allows the audience to understand how important the points she is trying to get across truly are. For example, on lines 10-12 she states, “Men increase, women increase, youth increase, boy increase…” By using such dramatic repetition, Kelley causes the audience to feel sadness towards the children, since they are being treated like adults at such a young age. Kelley continues her strong usage of repetition throughout the entire story by constantly stating the words “little white girls” should not be doing the type of jobs that adults do. By using more little white girl statements rather than little white boy statements in her speech, Kelley is able to show the problem in child labor, but more importantly the change that is needed for women’s rights. Finally, on lines 92-96 she goes onto say, “For the sake of the children, for the Republic in which these children…

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