Modern Sex Slavery Rhetorical Analysis

Modern Sex Slavery Modern slavery is a group of words that most Americans might not be familiar with. Millions of people assume that slavery ended with the African slave trade, and the Emancipation Proclamation, but there is a lot of information that people are blind to. Slavery is defined as the practice of forcing a person to work under unfavorable conditions against his or her own will, but what the dictionary doesn’t show is that there are many different forms of slavery. Child slavery, and forced labor both fall under the most common form of modern slavery that is sex slavery or more commonly called “sex trafficking.” Slavery is still as real as it was in the 1800’s and at this moment there are about 27 million people currently enslaved.
Krishnan relied heavily on not only emotion, but also statistics, and prior experience. Krishnan explains how she was once a victim of sex slavery, and this emotional experience fueled her want to make these hidden practices known. She also tugs at the heartstrings of the audience by telling horrific stories about how young children are savagely raped and constantly beaten. Krishnan also confronts the audience from a logical standpoint by giving statistics about how many people are in currently being held captive etc. Although the underlying purpose of both speakers was to educate and call to action, Krishnan better pushed her point across by using different rhetorical strategies and techniques. Even though some of the information was the same, the way it was presented had a lot to do with whether the audience would leave with new knowledge and a heart longing to help, or just leave the speech remembering bits and pieces. Bale presented his information in a constructive, professional matter, whereas Krishnan heavily used emotion and that emotion passed on to her audience.
In terms of persuasion, Krishnan might also have other advantages in comparison to Bales. While both speakers have done their own background research on the topic and probably have the same amount of experience on combatting modern slavery, Krishnan was actually a victim of sex slavery. Her own personal experience might have a bigger impact emotionally than the research of Bales. In terms of statistics, Krishnan also had a leg up in focusing more specifically on child slavery and the lack of educational opportunities they have, whereas Bales focused on modern slavery as a