The Clan Of One-Breasted Women Analysis

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Terry Tempest Williams wrote a strong and passionate essay, The Clan of One-Breasted Women, about her experience with finding out about nuclear testing in addition, what she believes was the cause of breast cancer that most of the women in her family were suffering from. Williams narrates her experience throughout the essay from the time she found out about the nuclear testing, through her being caught crossing into a testing site, illegally. The essay follows Williams throughout her experience and how it affected her family. Not only does Williams use diction, tone, and mood to get her point across. She also makes a strong argument through the use of ethos, pathos, and logos. On how people should fight and retaliate for their voices to be heard and not let the government do whatever they want to do, without questioning it. In the beginning of the essay Williams’ tone is skeptical and unsure, but as the essay progresses she seems to get more passionate and furious. Williams tone completely changes when her father reveals important information about what she thought was just a dream. “It was at this moment I realized the deceit I had been living under. Children growing up in the American Southwest, drinking contaminated milk from contaminated cows, even from the contaminated breasts of their mother, my mother- members, years …show more content…

Being submissive when everyone around you is dying is quite hard for one to just look the other way. “What I do know. I must question everything, even if it means losing my faith, even if it means becoming a member of a border tribe among my own people” (279). The writer rejects the mold that was being put on her and decided that she must do something to make a difference. Through her use of colloquial and loaded vocabulary, she allows the readers to relate to her in some way but, also gets them on an emotional