Florence Kelley Child Labor Rhetorical Analysis

This collects extra support for her main cause, child labor laws. Children are meant to run, play, and be free, not work excessive hours in a heinous factory. By using logos, pathos, and a shift in topic, Florence Kelley effectively erects her argument to vote for, and create, child labor laws

In Document 1, the National Youth Association was acclaimed by teen participant Helen Farmer. However, she also described her experience carrying large amounts of paperwork home that would often take all night to complete, which depicts the destructive nature of the program that many young workers were forced to endure. Besides chronicling her exploits in the NYA, Helen also articulated the strong obligation she felt to earn money due to familial pressures. This exemplifies the bias of the opinion that she probably felt was necessary to have due to the job she was given by the program rather than the way she truly felt based on the work she was forced to do. Ellen S Woodward, whose speech was excerpted in Document 6, argues that the Works Progress Administration helped impoverished schoolchildren and desolate female workers.

Throughout this speech, Florence Kelley addresses The Philadelphia Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1905, to bring attention to the working conditions of young children across the nation. Kelley’s rhetorical strategies are, listing examples of the appalling working conditions in a repetitive manner and appealing to ethos and pathos to persuade her audience. Kelley creates a compelling argument that captures the audience and throws them into the issue and then persuading them to join her battle. Kelley forms strong personal and emotional statements that strikes the hearts of the audience. She captures the hearts of the mothers and fathers in the audience and then encourages them to empathize with victims.

July 22nd, 1905 Florence Kelly delivered a speech about the unfairness of child labor at a National American Women Suffrage Association conference. Throughout this speech Kelly uses rhetorical strategies such as repetition, sarcasm, and an appeal to the audiences emotions to express the issue of child labor in America. Kelley uses repetition in this piece to emphasize the importance of her argument about child labor. In paragraph two, talking about the rapid increase in the amount of fourteen to twenty year old women who are working, she says, “ Men increase, women increase, youth increase, boys increase.”

The speaker reveals her experience with child labor by using rhetorical strategies. She uses repetition in the beginning of her speech to emphasize her point. She states, “Men increase, women increase, youth increase, boys increase…” to give a point to the audience and readers. The word “increase” is being repeated to demonstrate how bad the wage earning raised so quickly through different people of age; to everyone basically.

Before the days of labor laws and unions, there was a time in which laws were not able to keep up with a rapidly changing industrial economy. As machinery and technology advanced, so did the possible amount of revenue being generated. Unfortunately, this machinery made it so unexperienced workers, such as children and teenagers, could work hours on end creating products. With little legislation in place, these vulnerable workers were exploited in factories and mills. Many individuals, such as Florence Kelley, called for change by creating speeches that would be presented in large conventions and rallies.

Florence Kelley, a member of the women’s reform movement of the early 1900’s, actively fought against child labor. During this time period, women had not yet achieved suffrage, and children of poor families were sent off to work long hours in factories. Many children were barely educated and spent a majority of their lives in quiet obedience at looming machines. On July 22, 1905, Kelley gave a speech on the topic at the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in Philadelphia. On account of this, Kelley’s audience was a group of like-minded individuals who believed in women's suffrage.

Child Labor Analysis Child Labor was one of Florence Kelley’s main topics at a speech she gave in Philadelphia during a convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Kelley talks about all the horrors children were going through and the injustices they were suffering. She talks of the conditions children working in, the hours they were going in, and all in all, how wrong child labor was. Her purpose for this was to gain support of people to petition for the end of child labor. Kelley’s appeals to Ethos, Pathos and Logos through the use of great rhetoric is what allows her to achieve her purpose.

Child labor was another problem presented at this time. At the rate they were going back in 1900, 26% of boys between ten and fifteen were already working, and for girls it was 10% (Background Essay). Child labor was increasing as fast as the children working were dying. An example of this tragic scenario was Dennis McKee, a 15-year-old boy who was smothered to death by coal (Document B). This boy had a family, and that family had to deal with the loss of their son, all to the fault of an industry that thought to use young, able-bodied boys for their work was a fantastic idea.

In America’s history, child labor was fiercely criticized. Many activists of child labor laws and women’s suffrage strived to introduce their own viewpoints to the country. Florence Kelley was a reformer who successfully changed the mindset of many Americans through her powerful and persuading arguments. Florence Kelley’s carefully crafted rhetoric strategies such as pathos, repetition, and sarcasm generates an effective and thought provoking tone that was in favor of women’s suffrage and child labor laws. Florence Kelley uses pathos continuously throughout her speech.

In her speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Florence Kelly descriptively vocalizes about chid labor. She talks about the horrible conditions young children face in the states. Kelly uses repetition to put emphasis on little girls working in textile mills, “while we sleep” is repeated 3 times this makes the audience feel guilty for enjoying life while little girls are working. Kelly also uses pathos, appealing to the emotion of her

On July 22nd, 1905, Florence Kelley, a United States social worker and reformer who fought successfully for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women, delivered a speech on child labor before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia. The purpose of her speech was to convince her audience that the only way to stop child labor was by allowing women the right to vote. Florence Kelley uses certain rhetorical strategies, such as pathos, diction, and an extensive use of figurative language, to appeal to her audience and accomplish her goal. Kelley’s speech is composed of a substantial amount of emotional appeals to aid her in connecting with her intended audience. In paragraph four she says, “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy.”

In conclusion, Florence Kelley used many rhetorical strategies in order to call her audience to arms against child labor laws. She accuses the laws of being unjust and labels the children prisoners. In the last two paragraphs, Kelley refers to her cause as the "freeing of the children." She believed the children were robbed of their basic rights and freedoms by labor laws and used strategies such as pathos, parallelism, and illustration to convince her audience to help her "free

Children from as young as the age of 6 began working in factories, the beginning of their exploitation, to meet demands of items and financial need for families. In Florence Kelley’s speech before the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia 1905, Kelley addresses the overwhelming problem of child labor in the United States. The imagery, appeal to logic, and the diction Kelley uses in her speech emphasizes the exploitation of children in the child labor crisis in twentieth century America. Kelley’s use of imagery assists her audience in visualizing the inhumanity of the practice.

In her speech, Florence Kelley uses different rhetorical strategies to convey her message about child labor to the audience. Kelley uses repetition, pathos, and logos. She wants to get her message across to the audience that child labor needs to be stopped. First, Kelley uses repetition to emphasize her message about child labor.