Chitra Divakaruni Live Free And Starve Analysis

She sees the audience as being neutral. Divakaruni takes time to state each side of the argument and provides reasoning for both. She acknowledges that child labor is horrible. If the President signs off on the bill, close to a million children will be unemployed. The audience has the best interest of the children at heart. Divakaruni plays off the audience’s emotions as she describes the hardships the children will face if they were unemployed. The audience is seen as uninformed. Many people only see the negatives of child labor, not the reasoning behind why they’re working. These children work to provide for their families and keep them from starving. Divakaruni helps to show the outcome if America interferes with child

When their work do not affect their “health and personal development or interfere with their schooling,” they do not fit the negative notion of child labor (ILO, 1996). Children sometimes assist their parents with housework and take a part in building family businesses without their working hours affecting primary education. This is indeed a beneficial experience for children, because they learn to be productive within their communities. On the other hand, ILO (1996) applies the term child labor when work “is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and interferes with their schooling by; depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.” When child labor is engaged in enslavement, separation from families, and misplacement of children on the streets, ILO experts refer to it as the most extreme forms of child

Florence Kelley uses the rhetorical strategies of repetition, pathos, imagery, logos, and carefully placed diction to express how child labor is morally wrong. Her vivid and strong descriptions garner sympathy from her Philadelphia audience. Her use of diction expresses how the audience is to be blamed equally for the cruelty and inhumane nature of child labor. She is able to spur her audience and call them to action against the evil of child labor. “For the sake of the children… and their cause” (ln 92-94), Kelley expresses that

“Tonight while we sleep…” those little children will be busy working adult like hours, does not that upset you? Due to child labor laws in the United States in the early 20th century, children were working a great quantity of hours during the night time “while we sleep.” In the United States approximately twenty million children are working for their own food because of child labor laws. Florence Kelley, the author of this essay is disgusted by these unjust child labor laws and is empathetic towards the children,but also Kelley is ashamed of the United States rights of women. In this speech, Kelley expresses her loathe feeling towards child labor laws and emphasizes the fact that women cannot vote; in order for them to vote against them.

Child labour is a very real problem in the world today, and although it is declining, progress is happening at a slow and unequal pace. Child labour by the International Labour Organization is defined as “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development (Diallo, Etienne, & Mehran, 2013, p. 2).” In the most extreme forms of child labour it could account for child enslavement, separation from their families, exposure to serious hazards and illnesses and being left to fend for themselves on the streets (Dinopoulos & Zhao, 2007). In order for certain types of work to be included as “child labour” depends on the child’s age, the type of work,

In her article “Live Free and Starve,” Chitra argues the negative effect of a bill passed to end child labour. The bill is crafted by liberal congressmen wanting to end child labour by banning the import of goods from countries that implore child labourers. Chitra explains that banning the imports from these countries will do more harm than good, affecting the livelihood of the children and their families. Throughout the article, Chitra effectively argues against the bill, showing both the positive and negative impacts the bill would have on third world children and their families. Divakaruni’s uses character, logical, and emotional appeals to aid in her argument against the bill. Her credibility is established by her character appeal; she

“The International Labor Organization estimates that at least 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are working, mostly in the developing world.” Many Americans view child labor as wrong or dangerous, but they do not realize how essential child labor can be in developing countries. In the article “Regulated Child Labor Is Necessary in Developing Countries,” by John Tierney, a current author for the New York Times, focuses on child labor and why it is essential in some developing countries. Tierney creates a sympathetic tone for the readers to try and understand the struggles regarding child labor in developing countries.

"If the children themselves were asked whether they would rather work under such harsh conditions or enjoy a leisure that comes without the benefit of food or clothing or shelter, I wonder what their response would be." (Divakaruni 449) "…it seems inconceivable to us that someone could actually prefer bread to freedom." (Divakaruni 449) It is a hard thought to swallow, and I think that is what Divakaruni wants her readers to understand. In paragraph six, Divakaruni describes that when she was young, there was a boy that used to work at her house. His uncle had brought him to her family because his parents were too poor to provide for him. Her mother treated this young boy fairly, providing him with everything that Chitra and her siblings received. Chitra Divakaruni uses this story as an example to show that if an anti-labor law prohibited her mother to hire the young boy, what would he have been left with? Nothing. "Every year, when we went to visit our grandfather in the village, we were struck by many children we say by the mud roads, with their ribs sticking out through the rags they wore…Whenever Nimai passed these children, he always walked a little taller." (Divakaruni 450) If Nimai did not have that job, he would not have a proper shelter, or clothing to wear. Even though he may have only made two dollars a day, which is terrible, he still had a meal on the table waiting

When one hears the term “Child Labor”, an image of children making low quality clothing in some dingy third world sweatshop inevitably comes to mind. While this imagery is unfortunately founded in fact, the third world is not the only area complicit with this heinous practice. Truthfully, we, as a nation are also guilty of propagating this heinous practice. For over a century, this nation’s youth were subjugated to exploitation and abuse at the hands of captains of industry in the hopes of extracting every ounce of profit they could. Fortunately, sympathetic individuals recognized the children’s need for advocacy and rose to their defense in the form of organized dissent that appealed to the highest powers of this country to fight for those who could not fight for themselves. In this paper, we will look at what exactly child labor is, the circumstances that gave rise to the widespread acceptance of child labor usage, what working condition these children experienced, and how the United States eventually made its use illegal.

I am writing to you on the behalf of Florence Kelley, a student I have taught since 1890. She hopes to further her education at United States University. Kelley has always been extremely hard-working, empathetic, and compassionate, and strongly believes in the rights of all people, especially women and children. A perfect example of this is when she said, “For the sake of the children, for the Republic in which these children will vote after we are dead, and for the sake of our cause, we should enlist the workingmen voters, with us, in this task of freeing the children from toil” (Wamsley, 1336-1358). In this quote, Kelley was encouraging voters to vote for the abolition or at least limitation of child labor. As one can see, she is very persuasive and deeply cares about her work; she truly wants to free children from suffering due to unnecessary work. This considerate mindset is apparent in her entire work ethic and philosophy.

It is estimated that one in six of the world’s children are working in unacceptable conditions and that's about 180 million children worldwide (Kilcullen 218). That is a great deal of children that are exposed to harm or exploitation. The opposing side believes that these poor countries need child labor to survive, that it is alright to pay children low wages for the work they do, and do not believe that schooling is as important as work. By regulating child labor laws, governments would be able to enforce safer working conditions, increase wages to meet the cost of living, and mandate education for better opportunities even though the opposing side disputes these reasons and stance.

Kelley begins her speech by stating, “We have, in this country, two million children under...states”. Not only does this statement touch upon the issues of child labor, but she establishes credibility by stating factual information. This makes the audience believe that Kelley is knowledgeable about the topic at hand. Kelley continues to state statistics by talking about child labor laws within states to contribute to her credibility. For example, “In Alabama the law …..night.” She includes this information to illustrate the lack of restriction of state laws when it comes to child labor. This information enables the audience to comprehend the foolishness of child labor laws, persuading them to make changes.

Florence Kelley applies repetition throughout the text by continually referring to her audience as “we.” This use of repetition is key because it builds a sense of unity that is essential for the American people to have in taking on the issue at hand. Through the constant use of “we,” Kelley is able to push the concept that the current state of child labor is not just one man’s problem, it is an American problem. Kelley clearly portrays this message through “We do not wish this. We prefer to have our work done by men and women.” This demonstrates the obvious: nobody

Currently there are 168 million child laborers in the world. More than half of them, 85 million, employed at hazardous jobs, according to the International Labour Organization. In the article “In Praise of Cheap Labor Bad jobs at bad wages are better than no jobs at all”, Paul Krugman Professor of economics at MIT, explains that child labor cannot just be wiped away like so many other distasteful practices. That it takes a perfect storm of economic success and low child labor numbers for a full transition to labor laws that ban it. Employers will agree to follow the law; similar to what happened in the U.S. in the 1930’s when Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act. This Act established standards for the basic minimum wage and overtime pay. It restricts the hours that children under age 16 can work and forbids the employment of children under age 18 in certain jobs deemed too dangerous. Krugman believes that many developing countries are not at a point where they can support a full ban on child labor. He gives the example of countries like “Indonesia [who are,] still so poor that progress is measured in terms of how much the average person gets to eat” (Krugman 4). Professor of economics at Yale university, Christopher Udry, in his article “Child Labor” provides a definition of child labor as “ the sacrifice of the future welfare of the child in exchange for additional income” (243). The causes of Child labor are not as simple as cultural or economic reasons, and a

In the United States, child labor and sweatshops are illegal, and society frowns upon any business that exploits children in the production of goods. Though most would say that they would not support a company that uses child labor to produce its goods, almost everyone has, in fact, knowingly or unknowingly, supported these businesses in one way or another. Children are involved in the production of many of the everyday goods we import from overseas, including the manufacturing of clothes, shoes, toys, and sporting equipment, the farming of cocoa, cotton, sugarcane, and bananas, and the mining of coal, diamonds, and gold (The U.S. Dept. of Labor). Often, we are blinded to this fact.