Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis

Throughout this opinionated editorial, the author tries to convince her audience that same sex marriage should not be legalized. She hopes to appeal to the readers of the Wall Street Journal by the use of facts, rhetorical appeals, and religious accusations. The author begins right away by appealing to pathos in the first paragraph. She does so by mentioning the traditional values of marriage. She talks about the sanctity of marriage and how it is traditionally defined as between a man and a woman. By doing this she is appealing to her audience’s emotions in hopes that they will connect with the traditional values. This is especially effective considering that most of the readers of the Wall Street Journal are at an age that it is common for most of them to be married. The author also appeals to pathos by discussing the effects a same sex marriage would have on a child if they were brought up in that kind of household. By doing this she hopes to tug on her readers’ emotions and make them feel sympathetic towards the children brought up in this environment. She talks about the differences between a child brought up in a house with a mother and father, and one brought up in a house with same sex parents. By doing this she effectively establishes credibility as a writer by stating facts and statistics to support her point. This makes her argument more valid, as opposed to just writing about her opinion alone. The use of facts in this editorial helped the author appeal to logos. She gave logical reasoning behind the consequences of same sex marriage. For example, she discussed divorce rate for heterosexual married couples. Stating that same sex marriage would raise this rate. Also, she appeals to her audience by talking about tax dollars. Explaining that tax dollars would be used to give marriage benefits to gay married couples. This is effective because most readers of the Wall Street Journal pay taxes, therefore she hoped to spark the readers’ interest by showing how it would directly affect them. In this editorial, the author uses a device that is not often used in the newspaper because it is so controversial. But in this case, she appropriately used religious accusations to appeal to her audience. The author took into consideration that the Wall Street Journal is on the more conservative side, and used that to her advantage. In doing so she discussed the issue from a religious point of view in hopes to appeal to her audience’s emotions, morals, and beliefs. She also establishes more credibility for herself as a writer by using direct quotes from The Pope and by quoting Bible scriptures that touch on the issue. At the very end of her paper, however, she uses a commonly known saying about gay marriage. Most would find it a harsh or prejudice thing to add at the end, but in this case it added humor to the piece and made it seem a bit light hearted. In conclusion, the author creates an overall well-informed tone for her audience. She gives her readers information about the issue, in an attempt to let them decide for themselves what is right or wrong. In doing so she appeals to them through rhetorical devices and connecting with them through a religious point of view. Over all the author effectively displays to the readers of the Wall Street Journal the negative effects that legalizing same sex marriage would have on themselves and the community as a whole.