I Want a Wife review

I Want a Wife review

            Judy Brady wrote a poetic essay, “I want a wife” in 1971, during a period that was witnessing a strong feminist movement. The feminist debate had caused a heated discussion concerning the role of women in the home. Women had been the recipients of the negative impacts of patriarchal dominion and Brady had to stand out and play a role as a female author to represent the voice of the woman. The main aim of the author was to express her feeling about the negligence that women had been going through in their fight for equal rights as men. Brady focuses on the traditional roles of the woman in a home set up and seems to be addressing a female audience. Brady is concerned about the unfairness that exists within the marriage structure with the women coming out as the victims on many occasions. The significance of such a topic for a literary work stands out even in the present world since the issue of the fight for gender equality is getting vocal day-in-day-out. Judy Brady has successfully achieved her goal of passing her message effectively by considering wise employment of literary devices such as humor and satire.

Readers tend to get information being passed across if an author is efficient in the use of various literary devices. Literary devices add taste to any work of literature and capture the attention of readers uniquely by giving them an additional desire to read. The use of satire is critical in Brandy’s passing of her key arguments. Brady ridicules the society for being at comfort with the roles that women have to play as wives. The author states that the current standards set for the role of women in marriage are high enough to make everyone in the community to need a wife: “My God, who would [not] not want a wife…,” (Brady, 776). The essay employs satire continuously to express the extent to which society has neglected the rights of women in society to build its central theme. The use of satire is cleverly combined with the use of exaggeration to construct the entire issue of the essay and to portray the society as to have failed in protecting the rights of women in the society.

Exaggeration has helped Brady’s advocacy for proper treatment of women in society. Brady does not appear to agree with any of the society’s stand concerning the right treatment of women. For example, she is concerned that women are only allowed to listen and not to talk in a marriage system: “I want a wife who will not bother me with rambling complaints about a wife’s duties. But I want a wife who will listen to me” (Brady, 776). Although the statement appears to be an exaggeration of the unfairness that the husbands expose their wives, the author successfully passes her message that husbands should consider treating their wives as partners and not helpers as some tend to believe. In addition to exaggeration, the author is keen to shed more light on the mistreatment of women by the bright selection of tone to use in the essay.

The tone of “I Want a Wife” is a combination of satire and exaggeration and works effectively to shed more light on the author’s claim on women being burdened. Satire and exaggeration are used together in the way the author passes comments that appear supportive towards the community, but the main point is hidden in the use of satire. The points are exaggerated, but the readers can discern the correct meaning of the points being put across. For example, the author mentions that wives should be involved in doing all the house chores and that husbands should not give a helping hand. Also, the responsibilities of women should be maintained at keeping the house clean and taking care of the children (Beck, 117). The statements made by the author are aimed to be interpreted by the authors to mean that wives are literary their husbands’ slaves. In making the audience to get the message being passed across clearly, the author employs a wide application of diction.

Diction is used strategically in the essay, “I Want a Wife” to avoid the extensive use of jargon, that would otherwise make the audience to miss critical information for not understanding, or giving a wrong interpretation of jargon. The main aim of the author is to create awareness among women concerning the mistreatments done on them by their husbands. Also, the author blames the lack of organizations tasked with advocating for the equality between genders for the problems being faced by women. Judy is clear in the way she blames the slow economic growth on the lack of appreciation of the role that could be played by women. The author uses simple language to claim that ladies are forced to forego their job responsibilities to take care of their house chores. Lack of feminist groups in several regions has also been identified as the key reason why women are going through the mistreatment by their husbands. Feminist groups are expected to sensitize women concerning their rights as well as pushing society towards recognizing the role of women in the economy. On top of using simple language in passing her message, the author presents her work in a logical structure that addresses all the issues affecting the women in marriage.

The presentation of ideas in specific paragraphs allows the readers to get the information being passed across the author easily. Generally, readers may have difficulties in getting the main arguments by an author if the work uses a complex structure. For Brady however, the use of clear paragraphs to present each argument gives the readers easy understanding while reading and in so doing the message reaches the targeted population quickly. The use of strong topic sentences by the author creates a desire to read more, and thus the reader ends up covering all the content addressed in the essay. Also, the flow of ideas is done in such a way that the author ensures that the arguments raised are equally strong and that the reader finds reasons to outline all the arguments raised.

In sum, “I Want a Wife” was written in 1971, a time when the feminist movement was becoming a strong political force. Judy Brady played a significant role in 1960’s feminism movement. The essay aimed to enlighten women on the need for feminism movements by outlining to them how the rights of women are being neglected. The author shows how the rights of women are neglected by being overburdened by all the responsibilities of the family. Repetition, satire, and exaggeration are real devices used in the essay and do a better job in emphasizing the notion that wives are slaves to their husbands. The satirical tone used in the essay is used to show the extent to which divisions occur between the allocations of house duties among partners. Generally, Judy Brand has successfully achieved her goal of passing her information to her intended audience.