Why I Want A Wife Analysis

The ultimate goal of pathos is to emotionally impact the readers in a way that leaves the stories ever-present in their minds for months or even years to come. Pathos is conveyed through the depictions of hardship, poverty, and loneliness faced by Suitcase Lady and multiple characters in ‘Of Mice and Men’. From broken dreams and complete isolation to extreme poverty, the characters are able to connect with the audience through feelings of sadness and pity. Isolation, delusion, and poverty are the traits of characters that are key to evoking emotional and sorrowful reactions from the readers.

She essentially discusses how she does all of these things, but doesn’t get much in return. Another example of pathos in this essay is when she talks specifically about the sexual relationship that a wife and husband have. “I want a wife who is sensitive to my sexual needs, a wife who makes love passionately and eagerly when I feel like it, a wife who will not demand sexual attention when I am not in the mood for it.” In this quote, Brady compares the sex that a wife has with her husband to another chore that she does. She shows that there is no mutual emotion or desire between them and that it is more of a duty of a wife rather than a pleasure. Essentially, she compares herself and any other wife to a sex puppet who is just there to service the husband with little to no joy. These two examples make the reader sympathize with Brady and the common housewife because of all of the responsibilities that they have as well as how they get little to no pleasure out of what they have to do. Lastly, Brady’s hasty tone shows her resentment towards divorced men as well as men in general. This allows the audience to understand her feelings on the topic of gender dynamics and it forces the audience to feel that way too.

In her Feminine Mystique essay, “The Importance of Work”, writer Betty Friedan talks about how the identity crisis of American women beginning about a century ago. More and more of the work that was used by human abilities in which they could find self-realization that was taken from women. The identity crisis for women did not begin in America until the fire, strength, and ability of the pioneer women were no longer needed. Women today whom feel that they have no goal, purpose, or future will commit suicide. Betty Friedan attempts to explain the causes of women’s unhappiness as she tags it, “the problem that has no name”. (Friedan, pg.790, 1963) Friedan’s rhetoric in the essay is constructed and based upon three persuasive techniques, which are known as ethos, pathos, and logos. In her essay, her main goal was to bring about how successful her approach in determining the role of women in society. She did an excellent job at defending her argument with facts from history to back it up.

In Judy Brady’s essay, “I Want a Wife,” she examines why she would like to have a wife. Brady believes that a wife performs all house chores and the husband does nothing, but to expect the wife to do everything for him. Brady tries to persuade the reader to look at a husband viewpoint of what a wife should be. The essay was written during the early 1960’s, during the second wave of the feminist movement in America. Brady is pushed by certain reasons to write, “I Want a Wife” to show the humanist humor.

In this article Brady tries to connect to every type of wife by stating all of the possible things they may do in a day. In doing this she is using pathos, because she trying to connect with their emotions. A lot of the examples are the same as the one for logos, when she says “I want a wife to” or “I want a wife that will” (229-230). She does not think that every wife does everything she states, but by listing all of the examples she is appealing to the largest audience that she can. One specific example of her using pathos in a sarcastic tone is when she says that she wants the liberty to replace her wife and then goes on to say “Naturally, I will expect a fresh, new life…” (230). It infuriates her audience when she says that, because it makes wives look more like tools than women, and since most of her audience are women it aggravates them even more. Brady uses her writing to make her audience think that wives do too much for their families without appreciation.

Romantic comedies are loved by many; however, not many stop to think about how these women are stereotyped every time, giving the female character limits on their personality. Actress, comedian, writer and producer Mindy Kaling in her essay, “Types of Women in Romantic Comedies Who Are Not Real” classifies the stereotypes given to women in romantic comedies. from her 2011 collection of essays Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), is a comic essay on how she loves romantic comedies, but knows that female characters are fictional, and explains how they can still be appreciated. Kaling in her essay presents the female stereotypes by classifying them, and doing so with humor. The seven classifications she used are, “The Klutz”, “The Ethereal Weirdo”, “The Woman Who Is Obsessed with Her Career and Is No Fun at All”, “The Forty-Two-Year-Old Mother of the Thirty-year-old Male Lead”, “The Sassy Best Friend”, “The Skinny Woman Who Is Beautiful and Toned but Also Gluttonous and Disgusting”, and “The Woman Who Works in an Art Gallery”. This essay is fun informative and great for Kaling’s fans, and romantic comedy fans alike. This essay transitions throughout, from entertainment to a slight defensive yet still humorous. Kaling is a talented woman who struggles as the career of an actress is not easy for a woman who does not follow the strict guidelines. Being thin, as she

Joey Franklin makes masterful use of rhetoric in his essay “Working at Wendy’s” to construct an entertaining and compelling argument in favor of recognizing that the workers of the service industry are not just undistinguished drones, but rather complicated people, each with their own desires and stories. To this end, the author utilizes the effective rhetorical device of pathos, logos, and ethos. Franklin demonstrates an excellent use of imagery that serves as a conduit for empathy, which is vital for the use of pathos, the emotional appeal. In reference to logos, the appeal to logic, he paints the picture of a hard-working father that needs to provide for his family. This is a clear representation of common logic and ties into ethos, which is the rhetorical appeal to authority and ethics, in the sense that many people can relate to caring about and working to support family. For ethos, he establishes himself as your everyday working man — part of the working class. This shows that he’s clearly apt for speaking of the position he’s in, and allows the audience to relate to him through pathos.

Nicholas Carr addresses and adapts to his audience by effectively using pathos, a rhetorical appeal. The author captures his audience by appealing to their emotions. For example, Carr explains on page five,

Pathos is used very effectively in Seth Davis’s article. By using pathos he is helping to expose the purpose of the article in a way that you wouldn’t think of before. Davis states “As the father of three children under the age of eight, I can only pray that someone “exploits” my sons someday

The Other Wife is a short story written by Sidonie Gabrielle Colette. Colette is credited for challenging rigid attitudes and assumptions about gender roles. “The Other Wife” is about a French aristocrat and his second wife has a brief encounter with his ex-wife in a restaurant. The story’s point of view is 3rd person omniscient. An analysis of how France 20th century gender roles influence the multiple personalities of a husband, wife, and ex-wife.

One example of how Brady uses pathos to connect emotionally with the readers is in paragraph two. In paragraph two Brady writes,”Why do I want a wife?”(Brady 229), she writes this not as a serious statement, but as a sarcastic one. She writes it sarcastically to show readers that she is a women so she doesn’t really have any desire to have a wife, but to show the crazy ideas men have and expect their wives to do.

In Judy (Syfers) Brady’s article, “I Want a Wife”, she expresses her opinions in a satirical commentary that offers hypothetical criteria for an ideal wife, with an underlying message that deals with how people should be grateful for all of the deeds and chores that women do. Brady utilizes the strategy of

Her use of pathos allows her to connect with the audience on an emotional level and helps drive home her argument.

In the beginning when Adam was created, God knew man needed a woman to fulfill the Earth so he made Eve. The household perception of society in the 1970’s was that men needed a woman to do everything for him. A husband went to his job and did nothing while his wife ran the household, cared for their children, including the husband himself. The wife rarely had time for herself and acted as a slave for her family. Judy Brady uses logos to connect with her audience in “Why I Want a Wife”.

It is 1972 and feminism is spreading throughout global society like wildfire. Earlier in the 60’s, feminism had already begun to make its mark in terms of legal equality such as suffrage; however, around 1972 came the second-wave feminist movement, which tackled a wide-range of more ethical issues such as: sexuality, family, the workplace, and reproductive rights. During this time of social refinement Judy Syfers decided to make her mark on the feminist movement with her essay, “Why I Want a Wife.” Within her work, Syfers utilizes literary devices such as repetition in order to emphasize the importance, and unjust views of women in the household, while also utilizing appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos in order to further emphasize her views on this domestic issue.