Redactive analysis: From verse 8 to verse 15 we have an embedded speech from Nephi. This is not an unusual feature of Nephi's writing, with another speech event recorded in the exhortation before going to get the plates from Laban.
Stylistically, Nephi's narrative describes the "action" of the exodus, and then specifically enters a quotation from the events. In the quotation we have what Nephi presents as his actual words. Whether written down at the time, or remembered long later we do not know. Regardless of the journalistic accuracy of the speech, it is clearly accurate in the intent and effect.
In verse 8 Nephi brings up what must have been an unwelcome subject - that his brethren, being older, they should be setting the example rather than being corrected by their younger brother. In one way, this might be such an argumentative beginning that Nephi's speech was doomed from the beginning. On the other hand, it may have simply brought the issue into the open. From the effect of the speech, however, it would appear that it had the effect of opening wounds rather than closing them.