Tough Love And The Age Of Entitlement Analysis

The opinion piece “Tough love and the age of entitlement” published on the third of January 2016 in the “Sunday Age” and written by Cosima Marriner and Rachel Browne argues that parents are overindulging their children. Marriner reveals the fact that some parents sacrifice almost everything to keep their child happy and when they cannot support their needs, it results in an outburst of aggression. Marriner and Browne use a cautionary and appalled tone to persuade a target audience of concerned parents and average “Sunday Age” readers. Using numerous persuasive techniques such as expert evidence, graphics to depict an image of a disgruntled child, anecdotal evidence and also the appeal to family values, they the writers persuade the audience
to agree with their contention that parents who pander too much to their offspring, create uncontrollable children who want the world.

Michael Mucci, the illustrator of the graphic shown in the article depicts a disgusted, big headed and greedy child who wants only what he wants. His flimsy, small body enhances the vulgar and ugly expression of the boy, and his oversized head and small ears persuade the audience that he is a monster. His expression shows he hates what he has been given. His small body reveals that he is only a child but he acts with fury of a displeased adult with the enormous head implying a ‘know-it-all’ attitude. His small ears demonstrate the lack his perplexity of the situation. The background painted predominantly in green symbolises greed and entitlement the child demands. He is holding what the audience can only assume as rubbish as it is traced from the child’s perspective making comparison between the abusive, destructive, and possessed-like teenagers in the article providing further analogies to support their argument that tough love is need. “Sons are smashing windows, furious they have been asked to stop playing computer games. Doors are hanging off hinges having been slammed in a fit of pique. Teenagers are holding knives to their mother’s throat.” Daily readers of the “Sunday Age” newspaper are encouraged to feel shocked, concerned, and worried about whether they are leading their child towards this epidemic. They are swayed therefore to agree with Marriner and Browne’s contention that ‘entitlement’ is hurting children and affecting their future from parents not having enough ‘tough love’.

The article by Marriner and Browne utilises expert and anecdotal evidence to convince readers that we have a problem because of parents indulging their child’s every whim.
The writers refer to psychologists such as Michelle Pritchard and Judith Locke, and to another expert, Dennis Yarrington who is President of the ‘Australian Primary Principals Association’. “We are very quick to gratify our students” Yarrington admits, meaning the problem is already overwhelming in some schools due to the demands of kids who than overreact when things don’t go their way. The headline, “Tough love and the age of entitlement” acknowledges the fact that in this day and age parents are not enforcing resilient attitudes and independence for the child. The use of the persuasive device of expert evidence helps to sway readers to agree with the contention expressed in the headline, reinforcing the argument that we need to become tougher in dealing with teenagers who have developed an attitude of if I want it I need it now. The headline relates to the article by establishing a connection with ‘tough love’ meaning strict rules or hardworking and ‘age’ as the milestone of a needful, inconsiderate generation wanting ‘entitlement’ on everything they can touch. “Olivia has dropped out of school and goes out missing for days at a time. She’s smoking pot and has been arrested for shoplifting… Like when she lost her IPhone recently. She was screaming at me to buy her a new one, it could not just be any
phone. It had to be the newest, most expensive IPhone… when I said ‘the phone is your responsibility’, she started abusing me, screaming at me and smashing her bedroom. She said, ‘I’m going to destroy the house, I’m going to kill myself’.” Showing the analogy between school and the enhancement of disturbed behaviour from teenagers thinking that their parents are going to support all their needs using emotive language such as ‘screaming’, ‘destroy’, ‘kill’ and ‘abuse’ to make the audience feel inclined to further agree with the writer. The use of the persuasive device of expert and anecdotal evidence helps to sway readers to agree with the contention expressed in the headline, reinforcing the argument that we need to become tougher in dealing with teenagers who have developed an attitude of if I want it I need it now.
Marriner and Browne follow up their argument with more anecdotal and expert evidence provided by psychologist Locke and School educator, Michael Grose. Focusing on how schools now respond to this ludicrous attitude with instant gratification such as ribbons for only having to show up for students and the 24/7 satisfactions of social media spawning unwanted narcissism. Using persuasive devices such as appeal to family value, loaded language, and anecdotal evidence Marriner and Browne influence the daily “Sunday age” readers to further agree with their contention that children are repulsively pushing parents into a corner.