Rhetorical Analysis Of Why I Want A Wife

I am a wife. I wake up every morning and help my husband get ready for work by making him breakfast, getting him dressed, and packing his lunch. After my husband leaves, I wake the children, feed them, get them ready, pack their lunches, and take them to school. Then I go home and clean all day. Later in the afternoon, I pick the children up from school. I also have dinner ready prior to my husband returning from work. After dinner, I do the dishes and clean the kitchen. I then bathe the children and ready them for bed. These are just a small part of my daily duties as a wife. In Judy Brady’s article “Why I Want a Wife” in Ms. Magazine she talks a lot about the “duties” of a wife. Brady uses multiple rhetorical devices such as; ethos, logos, and pathos in her article to support and make her claim strong.

In this article, toward the very beginning, she states “... it suddenly occurred to me that I too, would like to have a wife.” (229), then she goes on to use the entire body of the article to make a list of the duties of a wife. Women reading this for the very first time will more than likely have questions about Brady’s intentions for writing this article. She uses the phrase “I want a wife who…” (229) repetitively to emphasise the extensive amount of duties a wife is expected to do. She also uses contrasting statements such as: “I want a wife who is sensitive to my sexual needs,” (230) and “ I want a wife who will not demand sexual attention when I am not in the mood for it.” (230) The use of these powerful statements works to open the eyes of women reading this article and tells them that it’s not okay to have their emotions and needs put on the back burner all of the time; which I feel is her purpose for the entire