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Rhetorical Analysis Of The Nuclear Family

924 Words4 Pages

Quinn Veach
Professor Kosse
Eng 106
24 February 2022
Rhetorical Analysis Essay
The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake The American Dream is the goal of many Americans. A loving partner, a few calm children, a large house in the suburbs with a white picket fence, and most likely a dog as well. This ideal social unit is known as the Nuclear Family, every day we as a society slowly fall away from this way of life. A perfect Nuclear Family keeps the family small and close-knit with not a large number of outside connections. Author David Brooks is making the argument that socially expecting and worshiping the Nuclear Family was a mistake. Brooks presents many reasons for feeling this way in the reading The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake. This reading …show more content…

Furthermore, illustration can be spotted throughout the majority of this reading. Brooks uses nostalgic examples to make the reader reflect on their childhood. He uses instances of celebrating holidays with dozens of family members and children running around causing mischief. This idea of laughter and quality family time brings a bright and welcoming atmosphere to draw in the audience before the author claims that none of these great memories would be made without extended family. Another example of the author building an illustration in this reading is when he paints the Nuclear Family as having a short life. Brooks suggests that the two-parent social unit as being small-minded and closed off. He makes them out to be semi-cult-like, they only welcome others like themselves. They do not appreciate unmarried partners with children, causing these unmarried parents to feel invalid and dirty. This illustration causes the readers to also feel disturbed by the nuclear family. Creating the same discomfort that Brooks has with this social …show more content…

Brook’s target audience is the average American family member. As he had stated in the text many Americans have now fallen away from the typical nuclear family social unit. So with that being said the chances that the reader is an outsider to the nuclear family are very high. This reader may also feel very strongly about how they would have been treated in the 1950s due to their marital status. Although society no longer treats unmarried parents this way it may still be upsetting to know that older generations do not support your lifestyle. Brooks did a great job of using this strategy to convince the reader that in fact, the nuclear family was a

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