English 3B
Mrs. Bartlett
Rhetorical Analysis Essay
In Florence Kelly’s speech to the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association contained many different types of rhetoric. In this speech regarding child labor laws, Florence Kelly successfully used tactics of repetition and personification, as well as many other types of rhetoric, to get her meaning across. Throughout her speech, she used a significant amount of repetition. Her constant use of the words “child” and “children” emphasizes the reason she is fighting for the labor laws – for the safety of innocent children. She also emphasizes the lack of restrictions of any kind in the workplace by repeating the phrases “no restrictions” and “while we sleep” – showing that there are no labor laws set in place when there needs to be, since there are no restrictions of any kind, especially on the limit of hours one can work. Florence Kelly’s use of repetition throughout her speech helps her accurately bring out the reasons behind her fight for child labor laws. Florence Kelly also uses personification throughout her speech to give the states of America human-like qualities and make the states appear as one entity. Kelly uses personification to make it appear as if the states are able to limit, permit, do better than the other states, and even “[take] a long backward step”. Unifying the states into one entity makes it appear as if it is the state’s responsibility as a whole, rather than a select few people’s fault. Throughout Florence Kelly’s speech she uses many different types of rhetoric to accurately depict the message she was trying to get across regarding child labor laws. However, she primarily uses the tactics of repetition and personification to display this message.