Clare Boothe Luce introduces speech at the Women’s National Press Club works by utilizing rhetorical devices. These devices act as a build up to the criticism in the rest of the speech. The speech calls out journalists faults in exchanging their integrity for what the public considers interesting. Subsequent to the introduction, Luce goes on to criticize her audience to evoke change in their actions. To prepare the audience Clare Boothe Luce uses allusion and metaphor in her introduction, which set up for the overall argument and realism of the speech. Luce calls for the journalists attending the Women’s National Press Club to prepare for the criticism in her speech through the use of allusion. In her introduction, she alludes to two orators…show more content… Luce attempts to compel the audience to see where her criticism stems from by the use of a metaphor. Luce states, “I stand here at this rostrum invited to throw rocks at you.” (Luce). By using the not literal figure of speech of, “throwing rocks”, she demonstrates to the audience of journalists that throughout the rest of the speech she will be blunt and it is because she was asked to be honest. The purpose of her doing so is to let the audience know she will bring their wrongdoings to light. She realizes in order to provoke guilt for their wrongdoings in the rest of her speech, she must show in her introduction that she was asked to be honest. This is demonstrated through the use of the metaphor of rock throwing. Furthermore, her audience of women journalists in the 1960’s, most likely believe they were doing a greater good by distributing what the public wants to hear. However, by using metaphors and other rhetorical devices to set up her argument, she shows them how as women they have had to fight to get their place. After the struggles for equal pay and women’s rights, the moral thing to do is have the integrity to make their struggles and hard work worth it. Luce hopes to evoke change by being completely
