Use of Rhetoric in Anna Quindlen's "Evan’s Two Moms"

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The essay, “Evan’s Two Moms”, was written by Anna Quindlen and published in The New York Times and the 2004 edition of Good Reasons with Contemporary Arguments. Also, this essay takes a liberal point of view concerning gay marriage and the ability to raise a child in a gay family. Throughout Quindlen’s essay, her structure introduces ethos, pathos and logos through a variety of court cases to gain the readers trust; she appeals to both emotion and logic in her reader through passion and unwavering intensity, which disapproves of those who take a radical point of view against gay marriage.

Anna Quindlen’s structure of “Evan’s Two Moms” provides the reader with explicit details concerning the debate about gay marriage. Also, in Quindlen’s introductory paragraph up until the fourth paragraph, she uses pathos to draw the reader into reading more of her essay. “Evan. Evan’s mom. Evan’s other mom. A kid, a psychologist, a pediatrician. A family,” She uses short sentences to build the reader’s anticipation.

Quindlen gives several examples as to why gay adoptions and marriages should be l...

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