Summary Of Womb For Rent By Ellen Goodman

Ellen Goodman is an award-winning, American journalist with the freedom of speech well within her rights. Notwithstanding, Goodman’s opinion piece “Womb for Rent” puts a light-hearted perspective on a heavy controversy: surrogacy. Throughout “Womb for Rent,” Goodman uses risky techniques to convey her point of view of the economic marketplace involving surrogacy, which causes confusion to the reader. “Womb for Rent” by Ellen Goodman uses puns and plays on words. This type of literary device intends to create a humorous effect, but surrogacy is not commonly a ‘humorous’ topic. Because of this, Goodman’s utilization of puns in “Womb for Rent” causes confusion to the audience. Goodman titles her article “Womb for Rent,” which is a play on the words ‘room for rent’ with ‘womb.’ Thus, from before her article begins, she gives the audience the impression that her piece is of a

Throughout the beginning of this article, it is unclear what, exactly, Goodman’s objective is. She defers introducing her topic, surrogacy, until the end of the second paragraph, and procrastinates the thesis of her article until the second last paragraph. Although this can be thought of as a tactic to fully explain her stance before revealing her true intention of “Womb for Rent,” it also leaves the reader misinformed about Goodman’s purpose. It is not until the end of the article Goodman writes: “It’s the commercialism that is troubling.” This is the moment where the author confesses that “Womb for Rent” is not about the controversy of surrogacy, but rather the commercialism associated with surrogacy and the ethics behind such an economy. Goodman obscures her thesis to keep the audience engaged and intrigued, but it also causes them to lose interest. The technique to stall the thesis statement in “Womb for Rent” deceives the reader and ultimately confuses them as