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Helen Keller Rhetorical Analysis

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People who are blind face many different problems in accomplishing everyday activities and becoming an independent individual. Some are able to overcome this issue while others struggle through it in their lives. In “Helen Keller’s Address before the New York Association for the Blind, January 15, 1907” she makes an appeal to the audience that the blind should be helped and made independent so that they can stand up and support themselves. She uses pathos or emotionally packed words, examples and anecdotes and cites from a prominent source to convince her audience that the blind are not helpless, but they are in need of guidance from people who can see in order to live and thrive independently. The author uses pathos very frequently throughout the text to get her point across to the audience. In the text, Helen Keller mentions that, “For New York is great because of the open hand with which it responds to the needs of the weak and poor.” This quote demonstrates Keller's point that people in New York are a champion in helping so people of New York should want to give and help the needy, which carries an emotional appeal. In addition, Helen Keller says that, “The men and women for whom I speak are poor and weak in that they lack one of the chief weapons with which the human being fights his battle. But they must not on that account be sent to the rear. Much less must they be pensioned like disabled soldiers.” This also carries a very emotional point because she uses a metaphor

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