I have always been blessed in life with being able to have my own room, have a good meal on the table every night and be able to attend schools that would prepare me for my college career. In the short, essay “Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Kids” the author talks about a family that has “Six people live here, in a room the size of the master bedroom in a modest suburban house”. This opening uses pathos to get the reader to feel for the family, the author attempts to put the reader in the shoes of a family that has nearly nothing. The author does a good job throughout the essay using pathos to get the reader engaged in the story but she lacks the tone to make her story a mind-changing story. The author argues the fact that there is an American Dream, which now days in America is becoming more of a long shot. The author uses a weak tone; she starts using the tone well in the story about the family that is poor. When she transitions to the argument part of the essay, she keeps the same tone, making her argument sound weak with a bad word choice and a very unconvincing argument. But what the author does do well is point out a fact that really does hit home. “Two years ago the National Low Income Housing Coalition calculate that the hourly income necessary to afford the average two-bedroom apartment was around 12$. That more than twice the minimum wage.” This was a surprising fact that truly made her argument one thousand times stronger. It is hard to believe that America broadcast this American dream yet they put minimum wage at a value that can’t even afford a 2 bedroom apartment.
