Anna Quindlen

Rhetorical Analysis

Anna Quindlen describes in the essay “Abortion is too Complex to Feel one Way About” the different situation that we as a human race are put in everyday. She talks about the topic of abortion in a way that one feels they have had to make the decision of whether or not a person is pro-choice or pro-life. She uses references that are of different personal experiences in the essay that are vital to the audience. Quindlen is writing to state her point that one should never put their self in this situation because one should take the proper responsibility. In this paper you will read about the conflict with abortion and what Quindlen thinks about this issue.

The author presents an interesting outlook on a volatile issue that has plagued or country for years. She appears to be voicing her opinion in an effort to bring reason and clarity to a confusing and emotional topic. To do this Quindlen uses personal experiences along with practical real life experiences. By using these different types of strategies Quindlen is able to achieve a greater influence over her audience.

The primary purpose portrayed through Quindlen’s writing is the complete and all-encompassing celebration of life. Quindlen is not supporting or denying a women’s right to choose whether or not she should have an abortion. Here we find a sole voice crying out to the masses. Those who have not been placed in such a predicament and are confronted with someone who has seen or experienced both sides of the issue and is seemingly trying to encourage these young people to think wisely about the main issue that is being confronted. Her primary purpose is proven to be true because of the strategies that she uses.

Quindlen uses different strategies in her essay to try and persuade her audience. She uses her voice indirectly rather than directly when talking about the personal experience of abortion. At the beginning of the essay she talks about how she was a counselor in a college dormitory. And she says “it was always the look on their faces that told me first”(627). She has had so many girls come talk to her about the decision that they do not even have to say anything to her any more. With Quindlen being a freshman guidance counselor and witnessing what these girls are experiencing says this causes her to become pro-choice. Other strategies she used in her essay are evidence and ambiguity.

The evidence she uses in this essay refers to her family and what she went through having her children. Evidence stated in this essay is less than what one would think because when this issue is usually discussed the writer lets their emotion over run the issue. She uses her family enough to let her audience know that she has a little credibility with the situation. Asking her husband a question about what if she accidentally got what would he want her to do? He says “and waste a perfectly good human being”(628)? He said this being sarcastic and really meaning that even though they might struggle with having a third child that they would still keep it and love it as much as their other children. She used her husband to show that the choice is not just for the female but for the male also.

Her third strategy used is ambiguity. When legally we have the right to say yes but morally, is this the right decision to make? The right to choose is a choice that she has already made but she chooses to stay behind both sides of the lines depending on what situation the person is in. Allowing her audience to choose without her having to drive a certain side into their brains. This choice should be made before we are put in to this situation before we decide to lye down with that person or before we even think about that person in a sexual way, but our society today thinks after and not before. Quindlen lets her audience know that it is not easy raising children even when you think it is the right situation or the right time in your life, because truly their never is