In the text I Want a Wife, Judy Brady discusses all of the responsibilities that a wife is expected to undertake and how wives are placed in charge of the majority of household and family jobs. The author shares her perspective on the expectations of a wife and uses satire to criticize and attempt to promote a change in society’s way of seeing them. By using all three rhetorical strategies, Brady is able to properly relay her message to the audience and convey a sense of unfairness. By using her own personal experience as a wife, she is able to write freely and in a way that provides a sense of credibility. In the beginning of the passage the author writes about her thoughts and states, “It suddenly occurred to me that I, too would like to …show more content…
This is further proved by the way she portrays how husbands act towards their wives, including how they want someone who will not “bother” them with “rambling complaints about a wife’s duties” or “demand sexual attention” when they are not in the mood (Brady 252-253). Most content in the text, including these quotes, emphasize a very harsh and sarcastic tone, characterizing some of this essay under the pathos strategy. This harsh tone is very effective and can sway the reader’s emotions in favor of the author’s stance. Later the author mocks husbands’ decisions to divorce or “replace” their wives with new ones by stating, “If by any chance, I find another person more suitable as a wife than the wife I already have, I want the liberty to replace my current wife with another one” (Brady 203). Brady writes this to illustrate and criticize the unjust truths as to why men might divorce their …show more content…
It states that the passage was written “after eleven years of marriage” and “just before divorcing her husband” (Brady 251). These minor details show that the author has had personal experiences that have prompted her to write this and that those same experiences provide an aspect of validity to her writing. This is an example of ethos, the device that refers to persuasion by credibility and legitimacy. Knowing that the author has had prior experience with what she’s discussing, makes her writing more persuasive and powerful, in terms of how believable or accurate it is. Another example of this would be at the very beginning of the essay when she tells the story of her male friend who was at that time, “fresh from a recent divorce,” and who was “looking for a new wife” (Brady 251). Since she personally knows the man, deciding to include her experience makes her stance throughout the remainder of the essay more believable and
In the short story ?Why I want a wife? by Judy Brady, she goes into detail what being a wife is like. The tedious details of day to day activities, the strain and hard work of being a ?good wife?, and the unappreciated service a wife must perform to be accepted by her husband. This story made me feel like, the author
In her essay “The Myth of Coparenting: How it is supposed to be. How it is,” Hope Edelman discusses the issues that she faces when dealing with marriage roles. According to her descriptions, her husband doesn’t play an active role in their domestic life and only focuses on his career. Edelman often gets into arguments with him over his disinterest and lack of contribution to home life. She responds to this lack of interest by buying a swing set along with other items against the husband’s wishes. Similarly, Eric Bartels’ essay “My Problem with Her Anger” discusses the effects of marital roles from the husband’s perspective. He argues that although he is not the most active with domestic life, he does contribute. Bartels claims that his wife’s anger makes it hard for the family to function. Bartels proves his dedication to their family by showing how he gives up drinking beer in order to dedicate more time to helping out around the house. Both Edelman and Bartels express love for their children and frustration at their spouse. As a result of this, references to the swing set in Edelman’s essay and to beer in Bartels’ essay reveal that when there is a disagreement between the husband and wife in a marriage, it is possible that one of the partners will express their emotion through rebellion against his spouse
Marriage is an eternal commitment between two people who love each other. But marriage is not always perfect and passionate as society has portrayed it to be. Marriage will inevitably be filled with annoyance and aggravation, because both individuals hold expectations their spouse cannot meet. In My Problem With Her Anger, newspaper writer Eric Bartels discusses the husband’s point of view in a traditional, but modern, marriage. In his article, Bartels uses subjective language in order to express the constant quarrel between him and his wife’s perpetual anger to influence his male audience into sympathizing with his marital obstacles.
It is safe to say that the box next to the “boring, monotone, never-ending lecture” has been checked off more than once. Without the use of rhetorical strategies, the world would be left with nothing but boring, uniform literature. This would leave readers feeling the same way one does after a bad lecture. Rhetorical devices not only open one’s imagination but also allows a reader to dig deep into a piece and come out with a better understanding of the author’s intentions. Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Wife’s Story” is about a family that is going through a tough spot. However, though diction, imagery, pathos, and foreshadowing Guin reveals a deep truth about this family that the reader does not see coming.
Men and women both drive cars, it’s a simple necessity to be able go to work for most people, however, from the commercials on television, one would assume that men are the primary purchasers of cars. In Steve Craig’s essay, Men’s Men and Women’s Women, he analyzes four commercials to illustrate how advertisers strategically targets the viewers. Craig argues that advertisers will grasp the attention of the viewer by the gender ideals that both men and women have of each other. Not only do advertisers pick a target audience demographic, but they also will target the audience at specific time to air their commercials. By analyzing an Audi and Bud Light commercial, one can see that Craig arguments are true to an extent but it appears that commercials have gone from an idealized world to a more realistic and relatable stance. for are still [true, however it seems that commercials may have altered to appear more realistic.] [relevant to an extent. This is to say, it appears that advertisers may have altered their commercial tactics. ]
It is tremendously unfortunate that women are treated so ruthlessly in marriages that it leads to mental consequences. Glaspell illustrates, through the lens of Psychoanalytic Criticism in the sense that the woman becomes mentally tempered because of the way her husband treats her, a time when Hale is talking to Mrs. Peters regarding the wife’s mental health, “I wish you’d seen Minnie Foster when she wore a white dress with blue ribbons and stood up there in the choir” (152), stating the idea that before the woman gets married, she was full of life; however, when she does get married, she is treated very unfairly and soon has strange emotional effects. Gilman shows an instance when the wife is experiencing psychological effects, “the front pattern does move . . . the woman behind shakes it” (par. 189), explaining that because the wife is so fed up with the unequal way she is being treated and the fact that she has to stay in a room, she begins going insane. According to Harper and Sandberg while considering mental issues towards women in marriages, “martial process is a key player in the depression equation” (547); this explains the ideology that because some women are treated unfairly during marriage, psychological effects soon haunt the woman who is unhappy with the inequality. This is a prime example of an instance where psychological effects on women in marriages illustrate gender inequality. Moreover, emotional effects in marriages are explored, “partners who are able to find the closeness they needed in marriage were less likely to be depressed” (547). This explains the concept that because spouses are not “close,” regarding the fact that women are not treated equally, men treat women in a cruel manner and thus, cause women to be negatively harmed mentally because of how useless they feel, illustrating gender inequality.
Since most men have mothers to cater to their every need up until the time they move out, they have outrageous expectations of how a wife should act and what duties she should perform. Judy Brady, who is a wife and mother, wrote the essay "I Want a Wife" to explain what men want in a wife. She discusses the different skills a wife needs to possess for a man to consider her a good wife. Brady’s use of repetition, constant sarcasm, and defensive word choice throughout her essay makes it successful by relating to women’s frustrations of being a wife.
Marriage is the union of two people, traditionally husband and wife. Traditional also are the roles that women play when confined in a marriage. When a woman has had the opportunity to educate herself pass tradition and has been use to a fast-paced modern lifestyle, this role of the wife might prove to be quite onerous to mold to. Usually a time of joy, celebration, and adulation, marriage may also bring along emotional and physical pain as well as awkward situations, as the woman must alter herself to conform the traditional role of what a wife should be. Bessie Head depicts two modernized, educated women in her short stories of “Life” and “Snapshots of a Wedding”. These women are forced to change from the only lives they knew as single women to the new roles they must live up to as wives.
As a woman she wants to be able to support herself and not depend on others, but she cannot because she has to do all the duties that are required as a wife and does not have time: “I would like to go back to school so that I can become economically independent, support myself, and if need be, support those dependent upon me” (229). Women were discriminated against, and their needs were not thought to be as critical as men’s and children’s. The wife is expected to take care of everyone else's needs before her own. Wives were supposed to get groceries, make meals, arrange schedules, do the shopping, and clean. Wives do not have time to do what they want and take care of their own needs because of those duties. Eventually, these duties turn into burdens to wives. Not only were wives expected to fulfill all those duties, but some were expected to have and keep another job outside the house to help provide for their families. As a man, they expected the wife to plan and arrange every fraction of the men's life: "I want a wife who will take care of the details of my social life. When I meet people at school that I like and want to entertain, I want a wife who will have
Judy Brady’s narrative style in “I want a wife” uses sarcasm quite effectively to portray her personal experience as a wife. She graphically details the conventional marital division of labor while subtly highlighting the inequities. However disparate these spousal duties seem to be, they form a nearly universal representation of a traditional household. Brady enumerates all the elements of a working household: the cooking, cleaning, organizing, scheduling and nurturing of family. She clearly implies that without a wife, the household would cease to function. Also, that the very label of “wife” brings with it all the duties and responsibilities listed.
In her classic essay first published in feminist magazine Ms., “I Want a Wife” Judy Brady declares the role of women in the 1970’s as viewed from a man’s point of view. This essay by Judy Brady is written from a feminist point of view portraying how men perceive women in their minds and how life is difficult as a wife:
A. In this passage, Abilene is speaking to the reader and she is discussing her opinion on memories. When Abilene was discussing this, she was in her bedroom, thinking of her past life with Gideon. She speaking because she is recalling the happy memories she had when she was younger.
Immediately, the narrator stereotypes the couple by saying “they looked unmistakably married” (1). The couple symbolizes a relationship. Because marriage is the deepest human relationship, Brush chose a married couple to underscore her message and strengthen the story. The husband’s words weaken their relationship. When the man rejects his wife’s gift with “punishing…quick, curt, and unkind” (19) words, he is being selfish. Selfishness is a matter of taking, just as love is a matter of giving. He has taken her emotional energy, and she is left “crying quietly and heartbrokenly” (21). Using unkind words, the husband drains his wife of emotional strength and damages their relationship.
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator and her husband John can be seen as strong representations of the effects society’s stereotypical gender roles as the dominant male and submissive female have within a marriage. Because John’s wife takes on the role as the submissive female, John essentially controlled all aspects of his wife’s life, resulting in the failure of the couple to properly communicate and understand each other. The story is intended to revolve around late 19th century America, however it still occurs today. Most marriages still follow the traditional gender stereotypes, potentially resulting in a majority of couples to uphold an unhealthy relationship or file for divorce. By comparing the “The yellow wallpaper” with the article “Eroticizing Inequality in the United States: The Consequences and Determinants of Traditional Gender Role Adherence in Intimate Relationships”, the similarities between the 19th century and 21st century marriage injustice can further be examined. If more couples were able to separate the power between the male and female, America would have less unhappy marriages and divorces.
In the reading’s of “Why I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady, (Essay #6) the author gives details on the reasons she would love to have a wife by her side. She gives explicit encounters on the labor detail job of a woman, from cooking, to cleaning, to ironing, to sexual interactions. Now, I do believe that as a wife, there are specifics that are wanted in a marriage, but nothing stated as a demand.