Rhetorical Strategies in 'I Want a Wife' by Judy Brady Paper Example

The work of a woman is never easy. Most women will agree that this statement is true as far as their lives are concerned. One woman who acknowledges this is Judy Brady in her essay 'I want a wife,' which was for the first time appeared in the feminist magazine Ms. in 1971. In her essay, she narrates the heap of responsibilities that women in the name of wives need to fulfill in their families. Brady builds the credibility of her essay by stating at the beginning that she belongs to the class wives, to raise emotions that what she narrates in the essay is what she has experienced in her life as a wife and her mother.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

In her essay, Brady begins it with by remembering the incident where a recently divorced man, who happens to be her friend, is looking for a woman to occupy the space that his ex-wife left after the divorce. She reckons how quick the man is in looking for another wife even though her ex-wife went with his kid. She gets into a man's shoes and starts narrating how women also want society to take care of their needs instead of crucifying them to many responsibilities. Although she is a woman, the voice that she maintains throughout her essay is that of a man who is looking for a wife and uses this style to reveal the burden that women are braving in the course of maintaining their families.

Throughout her essay, Brady uses pathos to build arguments that display the nature of life the women are subjected in the society. She says that she needs a wife who will be ready to work and send her to school to gain skills that will help her get over the notion of being economically dependent on a man "...I want to go back to school and become independent economically, support myself, and if necessary, support those dependent on me..." She uses these sentiments to show how lack of education makes women dependent on their men yet they reserve better chances of taking care of themselves if they have the opportunity of going to school. She uses strong appeals to logos to explain the tasks that women have to perform while men or their husbands are going to school "...I want a wife who is good nurturant attendant to my children, who arranges for the schooling and makes sure that they have an adequate social life..."

Brady also notes that besides taking care of the family and children, women have more roles to play in taking care of the needs of their husbands. Being a woman, she uses strong appeals to ethos to show how women take care of their husband's physical needs . she considers a who will carefully mind of the physical needs, who will keep my clothes clean...who will sympathize with me when I'm sick..." She also reveals the selfish nature of men that least consider what women need to go through to meet the family responsibilities left for them. Brady uses logos to show how women sometimes have to go a mile further to sacrifice their opportunities such as work to meet family demands yet nobody appreciates them. She considers the wife not only to lose time at work but also not to lose the job."...it may mean a small cut in my wife's income from time to time, but I guess I can tolerate that..."

In spite of the many challenges that women go through, men detest when they complain, but ironically they want their wives to listen to them "...I want a wife who will not bother me rambling complaints about a wife's duties... but the one that listens when a rather dificult point is being explained..." Brady shows how women are expected to keep their problems to themselves in society no matter how hard life gets. They should be good listeners and sympathize with the ordeals of their men. Women also have no voice in making decisions of their marital lives. They are there to meet the demands of their men but reserve no right to raise their concerns "...I want a wife who is sensitive to my sexual needs..."and also need a wife who will not demand sexual attention when not in the mood. Women should take care of family control methods without involving their men.

Conclusion

Brady's essay is a serious reflection of what women were going through in the society when she wrote it. Women were subject to family responsibilities and their role was there to be seen and not to be heard. They had limited space to education which made them totally dependent on their men. Theirs was to fulfill their responsibility and take all the blame when things go wrong in their families even when such problems originated from men.