Analysis of Terry Tempest Williams' Short Story, The Clan of One-Breasted Women

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Composing a story is not just about writing down ideas and events. The true art of writing is an intricate and timely process. Convincing the reader of your beliefs and opinions goes beyond actual facts and data. In the 1600's a man named Roberto de Nobili recognized this situation and discovered the rhetorical triangle, which is still commonly used today (Faigley 5).. The rhetorical triangle consists of three key structural terms that must be evident in a story to enable the reader to comprehend and trust the writer. The three tactics of persuasions became ethos, pathos and logos. The Clan of One-Breasted Women, by Terry Tempest Williams describes the tale of a young girl's family being affected by breast cancer and how it has greatly impacted her lifestyle. When taking a closer look at the structural content of the story, one can notice that the elements of persuasion are vaguely apparent and misused.

Logos would be described as the reasoning and logic behind an argument or idea (Faigley 7). Even though one may be able to link different occurrences together, without actual proof it is said to be an unsubstantial argument. One can notice faulty logics in paragraph four when the author states, 'Most statistics tell us breast cancer is generic, hereditary, with rising percentages attached to fatty diets, childlessness or becoming pregnant after thirty. What they don?t say is living in Utah may be the greatest hazard of all,? (Williams 375). This paragraph is compiled of inaccurate reasoning, without cited sources to prove that writer?s opinion is a fact. First the writer talks about how the statistics state that breast cancer is genetic and hereditary. Where does the writer achieve this information from? Just because her grandmo...

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...e ideas that the bombing and nuclear tests has caused her family to evolve into the Clan of One-Breasted Women, (Williams 376). Perhaps the chemicals and bombing lead to the inevitable clan, but the truth is that the logics behind her reasoning are, in lamest terms, unjustifiable. The author does not site sources as to where she finds her evidence, nor does she state actual proof substantiating her claims. Nobili states that for a writer to be persuasive he or she must embody each point of the rhetorical triangle in their writing, (Faigley 7). Whether or not the writer has fulfilled the ethos and pathos part of the triangle, with logos absent from the two, the story is a scattered pit of irrelevant and meaningless events and opinions. In order for this reader to be believable she must revise her story and add hard evidence and facts that link the events together.

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