Terry Tempest Williams Research Paper

Would you be concerned if the United States governments decided to test nuclear bombs and had their fallout landing in your backyard? As an American citizen I would never dream that the government would bomb its own people however this is exactly what happened in the southern Utah desert starting on January 27, 1951 and continuing through July 11, 1962. During those years the United States was right in the middle of the cold war so there was a great push to further develop our nuclear weapons to prepare for the threat of a possible nuclear war. To our Politicians it was simple the nuclear testing was for the greater good of the country and the southern Utah desert was “virtually uninhabited”.

However amid the hot sand, buttes and mesas there were still thousands of people who called the southern Utah desert home. Year after year they would witness the eerie lights, smoke and ash of the nuclear test blindly believing those across the country in Washington DC who continued to promise it wouldn’t do them any harm. Little did they know the radioactive ash

was slowly poisoning them planting itself in the air they breathed and the food they ate causing long term damage as they went about their daily lives. Women in particular were subject to this silent killer overtime they developed cancers, especially breast cancer ripping their lives away from them and those who they loved.
Terry Tempest Williams was one of the many people who lived in this “virtually uninhabited” land. In her essay “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” she starts out by telling us about how the nuclear testing directly affected her and her family. Nine people in her family were diagnosed with breast cancer and seven are dead. Williams goes on to tell us about how when she was just a young girl she witnessed the unnatural clouds of smoke and had the radioactive ash land on her car. She tells us how she had thought it was just a dream or misconstrued memory, until one night when describing this to her
father he told her it was real. Williams continues to tell us about she grew up as a strong Mormon girl who never questioned authority and was shocked when she realized the public had been lied to by the government about the safety of the nuclear testing and how they gave false reassurance that everything would be fine. Williams went on to explain how many different people had developed cancer from the fallout and a large number passed away while the government still maintained its innocence and refused to accept responsibility.
In the next part of “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” Terry Tempest Williams describes a scene from a dream she had, in her dream she was with some women from the Shoshone tribe of southern Utah.

She tells us about how in her dream they circled a fire in the desert and talked about how they as women represented the earth they would reclaim the desert for the sake of their children and for the sake of the land. Williams continues to describe how in her dream the Shoshone women broke into the camps outside the site of the nuclear tests and how the authorities were called and all the women were arrested. Terry Tempest Williams ends her essay with the end of her dream where the soldiers left her and the Shoshone women in the middle of the desert as a cruel joke, but the joke was on them because they didn’t realize the land they were bombing, the land where they left these women stranded was the same land they called

home.
In “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” Terry Tempest Williams was extremely effective in persuading her readers that the United States government should be held accountable for the damage caused by its nuclear testing. Williams establishes ethos early on through her first-hand experience as a native of Southern Utah whose family was depleted as a result of the testing. She connects deeply to her reader through an emotional journey making them feel sadness for the pain of those who suffered and anger that the government has yet to be held responsible. She also uses powerful language and
metaphors that appeal to her reader’s very belief system.
Terry Tempest Williams appeals strongly to ethos because her whole essay is about the effects of the nuclear testing in the southern Utah desert, and she describes her family as being Mormon and that her family has lived in southern Utah since 1847. This is especially powerful to any reader familiar with Utah since Utah was established in 1847 by the Mormon pioneers, it tells them that anything that has happened in southern Utah since its origin has had a direct effect on Terry Tempest Williams and her family. She also appeals to ethos when she says “My mother, my grandmothers, and six aunts have all had mastectomies. Seven are dead.” Nine of Williams direct family members developed breast cancer from and of those nine only two have survived. She furthers her point with a story about how after her Mother had surgery to remove her breast cancer she gathered all her family around her and said “Children, I am fine. I want you to know I felt the arms of God around me.” Williams then said this “We believed her. My father cried. Our mother, his wife, was thirty-eight years old.” Her own mother was ripped away from her much too soon because of the nuclear testing the government had done, and yet Williams and her family never received any type of compensation for their loss. She referred to them as this “Sheep. Dead sheep. The evidence is buried.” Williams powerful life story makes readers see the need to “unbury” the dead sheep and make things right for the families like hers that have suffered.
Terry Tempest Williams appeals to the emotions of her readers by describing what it was like to be there and witness the deaths of many members of her family. She uses powerful language and descriptions to make you feel the pain she felt watching the women in her life suffer until the end. William says “One by one, I have watched the women in my family die common, heroic deaths.” “I watched the beautiful women become bald.” “I held their foreheads as they vomited green-black bile, and I shot them with morphine when the pain became inhuman.” Williams uses these descriptions to paint a horrific
picture of the truth of the effects of the nuclear fallout. The government told the people “We find no basis for concluding that harm to any individual has resulted from radioactive fallout.” The examples used by Williams’s makes readers realize otherwise, it illustrates the pain some individuals did suffer and to any reader who has a mother, grandmother or aunt you can sympathize with the heart break they felt.
She continues by saying “The price of obedience has become too high.” Williams is appealing to a different emotion when she describes the United States government as a monarch and then quotes that “the King can do no wrong”. This statement brings readers right back to the Declaration of Independence and reminds us of what our founding fathers fought for, taxation without representation was one of the major reasons there was a revolutionary war. Williams makes her readers feel outraged for the great injustice that also befell the people of Southern Utah. She tells us how it was the politicians from across the country who decided to test these nuclear bombs in the back yards of the people of southern Utah. Williams explains how it was the fear and inability to question authority that killed these people, she makes readers feel anger for what happened and the need to find a voice now to right the wrong and prevent anything like from happening again.
Terry Tempest Williams appeals to her readers beliefs in “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” when she describes the cases such as Irene Allen v The United States government, she tells us how Irene was widowed twice because of cancer caused by the radioactive fallout and she says “God-fearing people. This is just one story in an anthology of thousands.” For anyone reading this essay that has the slightest belief in a God this statement is the strongest appeal of all. God created all people equally and everyone has a right to live and if all these innocent people have suffered or died because of the choices of our government then it is wrong. Later in her essay Williams described a unique dream she had about the Shoshone mothers that by describing how the women were arrested and soldiers
abandoned them in the middle of the desert. Williams said “The officials thought it was a cruel joke to leave us stranded in the desert with no way to get home. What they didn’t realize was that we were home.” These imageries bring to life the reality of what the government did and make it more real to readers while appealing to their basic beliefs in human rights, the right to live and the right to a safe home.
Williams does an exceptional job of making you as a reader feel many emotions like sadness, horror and anger. She uses rich descriptions and examples including those in her life that make her readers realize the injustice of the situation and it motivates them to want to make a change, a change in our country and the way that the people can be represented. Terry Tempest Williams took a subject many people knew nothing about and through her first-hand experience and strong appeals to emotions and beliefs she made her readers feel passionate about the need for the government to make things right for this clan of one-breasted women in our country.