The Family as a Traditional Institution
The family is traditionally considered the smallest structure of the nation. Despite varied definitions, a conventional family includes parents and children and is founded on marriage. Lately, however, this institution has been marred by divorces, consequently leading to reduced numbers of people willing to commit themselves to matrimonies. In this essay, a rhetorical analysis of the article In the Season of Marriage, a Question. Why Bother? by Professor Andrew Charlin is attempted, and in so doing, seeks to demonstrate the validity and weaknesses in his treatise.
The Argument about Why People Marry
The author first makes an argument about why people marry today. He nonetheless leaves the question on when people marry and whether they marry at all for the reader to answer. Cherlin employs facts to prop his argument. He gives an example of the ballooning number of single people who appear to be having respectable lives, weighing in by averring, “… you can have a perfectly respectable life…without marrying” (Cherlin). The example evokes a question in the mind of the reader, “Why do people still bother to marry?” By so asserting, the author forms his point of departure.
Statistics and Logic on Marriage and Childbearing
Apart from the facts, Cherlin uses statistics and logic to achieve great expository effect. He provides statistics that 47% of the women who give birth in their 20s in America are unmarried to contend that marriage for childbearing has lost its taste (Cherlin). The ghost of shame that would haunt the unmarried and those who bore children before marriage in the 20th century has since been shaken off in the 21st century. The author points at the open nature of marriage in America today, thanks to the varied contemporary reasons for marrying, opining that “…marriage is… is important for different reasons” (Cherlin). He further argues that marriage has become an indicator of the incredible lives of young people.
Evidence and Reasons for Marriage
The author uses logical appeal by giving evidence and reasons to the reader. He argues that more than 90 percent of bachelor degree holding women in America first have their children in marriage. Cherlin attributes this patience to the prospect of a good job and house. He draws a direct relationship between this and the dwindled divorce rates from 1980.
A Perfect, Logically Flowing Argument
Cherlin hopes to reach out to the American society through his expose on marriage. He scores his target through a perfect, logically flowing argument. He persuades his audience through facts, evidence, and statistics and thus succeeds in hinting the answer to his rhetorical title question. He, however, fails to offer a clear way forward on this issue. He is loudly passive on the solution to the looming danger of the total collapse of American marriages.
The Changing Trends in American Families
In conclusion, the article by Cherlin opens the reader to the fact that the American family is undergoing tremendous changes. Right from more children being born out of marriage, to people treating the family as the final thing they do in life to complete the jigsaw in their otherwise fulfilling lives, the facts are bare, and the reader is left to decide which route to take.
Works Cited
Cherlin, Andrew. “Why do People still Bother to Marry?” Nytimes.com, 2013, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/opinion/sunday/why-do-people-still-bother-to-marry.html. Accessed 24 Apr. 2018.
