Rhetorical Analysis Of Stuff Is Not Salvation

This argument analysis will be examining the Op-Ed piece, “Stuff is Not Salvation” by Anna Quindlen. Quindlen constructs an argument analyzing how Americans today throw themselves into debt by spending all their money on materialistic items instead of necessities. Quindlen produced her piece during 2008 when the recession took place and while the economy was still struggling during the height of the Christmas shopping season. Quindlen’s argument against splurging for materialistic items in the name of vanity and greed does not effectively create ethos and is not persuasive for her audience of Americans shopping for the holiday season due to its lack of fact based evidence. The first reason Quindlen is arguing against nonessential expenditures particularly during the holiday shopping season is that the economy is in a recession and it would be far wiser to spend money on the items necessary for daily life rather than junk soon to be forgotten. Quindlen hinders her purpose by basing most of her argument off of her personal opinions, rather than effectively establishing trust and credibility with her audience. She presents no individual credibility, and primarily goes off her own speculations and observations. Her appeal to experts is shown in the form of slim statistics with which …show more content…
Words and phrases that reveal the persona are “Christmas toys were grubby and forgotten by Easter,” “the excitement of getting an orange in his stocking during the Depression,” (Quindlen, 378) and “a worker at a Walmart in Valley Stream, N.Y. was trampled to death by a mob of bargain hunters” (Quindlen, 378.) Quindlen’s depressive nostalgia keeps the audience in the past for the better part of her Op-Ed, not assisting in supporting her argument. She retells stories of her childhood forgotten holiday toys and how the money could have been used for rent or tuition, instead of talking about the current crisis at