1-25-12
The
article ‘Where Have the Good Men Gone’ should be placed in your book under the
second chapter; Poorly made arguments.
The arguments made in the article were not fully convincing and they are
also not made in a good manner. The
author uses Ethos and Pathos, but Logos in her argument is hardly able to be
found. In order to fully be able to
write a knowledgeable and believable the author must incorporate all three
(Ethos, Logos, Pathos) into his/her argument.
The
article has a point that all men in their twenties are now in a state of life
that she calls ‘Pre-Adulthood’. The
author explains that before, more men were married by the age of 25 than in
today’s society. Her definition of
pre-adulthood is none the nice. She says
that men who once brought home flowers to a wife, are now bringing home chips
and beer to their band mates in a flat.
Then, she mentions how women are now beginning to climb even higher, and
closer to the men, on the ladder of success.
Now, more women are graduating, getting higher GPA’s, and even earning
more than the men in their lives. She
states many facts, and in the middle switches to how and why the men are
entering this state.
Now,
the author states that men that are in this ‘Pre-Adulthood’ are unpredictable,
and writing their own stories, which is a major change from the men in earlier
generations. Before, men were settling
down with women and making families before 30.
And now, the author says men are just starting to consider marriage by
30. All in all, she makes an overall
point leading to her thesis, that this new found ‘Pre-Adulthood’ might not be
the best thing for society and for men in general.
In
her fist couple of paragraphs the author starts by saying the men in today’s
society, who are in their twenties, are now experiencing a ‘pre-adulthood’ part
of their lives, which differs from previous generations. Along with this she states many statistics,
but all of them are just dealing with GPA’s and the percent of married men now
as compared to in 1970. The amount of
emotional appeal in the first half of her article is impressive, but it lacks
any logic. To be more specific, much of the article had
logical fallacies. Once, when the author
was expressing that all men are now among this new breed, and all of them are
generically the same. But, no actual
surveys were quoted to back up these statements.
The
author goes further into detail by saying that this new era of men has already
been happening around the world, and we are just playing social catch-up. But, if this is so, then where is the
evidence to make this a sound judgment.
Continuing
to go down the article more you are able to see the mention of women and the
changes they have come upon in the more recent decades. She says that women are now doing better in
school than men, as well as earning more.
But, she also says that it is the man’s own fault that they are not as
‘empowered’ as they once were.
Emotionally, for women this sticks.
But, for men, it is about as clear as mud.
The
topic of the essay was how men today are not up to the standards of the men
before. So, when deeming the men of
today as ‘children’ in men’s bodies and saying that they are the ones who need
to change. I don’t believe that that
will necessarily help her call to action.
Men, in character, do not like to be told what to do directly. But, in subtle ways of encouragement are able
to be persuaded in to being what is proper.
Throughout
the paper, the author gives many appeals, but most do not translate in the ways
I believe she intended. The article does
indeed have a strong argument in it, but it does not translate within the way
this author chose to write. This article
should therefore be published in Chapter Two: Poorly written essays.
