In “A Generation of Men Raised by Women” Tori E. Gibbs describes the different roles men and women typically have in books and movies, and how the movie “Fight Club” practically switches the characters roles. She is showing that not every story has to fit the stereotypical gender rules. I think that the author wrote this mainly for people who have read the book or watched the movie. I haven’t done either and I had to read the article twice before I got what was being written about. The article jumps around a little bit, but after my second time reading it, I knew what she was talking about. You can tell that she is mainly writing to people who know about the story because in the beginning she does not say what is going on, she just jumps into what her article is about. Some ways that she could be writing to people who do not know the story line are her specific visual examples from the movie that help the reader understand and visualize what is happening. Gibbs' thesis is that every relationship needs equal amounts of masculinity and femininity in order to have the full potential. Both male and female are equally dependent on each other. It just so happens that in this story, the male (Jack/Tyler) is more feminine and the female (Marla) is more masculine. Some would agree with this thesis, but others would claim that male and female are not dependent on each other at all, and others would argue that the roles of male and female should not be switched. So yes, the thesis can cause the readers to have many different views. The author uses many good examples of where the Jack shows his feminine side, and Marla shows her more masculine side. For example, she tells how the Jack has a spotless house, considers his furniture as an expression of his person, and he shows that he is not afraid to cry. And to counter that, Marla is not afraid to run out in front of a car, she sleeps on a dirty case less pillow, smokes, cusses, and her house is a mess. Although toward the end of the article, the author explains that the characters kind of switch back to their stereotypical roles towards the end of the story. Jack soon runs fearlessly in front of a bus in order to help Marla get to safety. Along with his more masculine self, he learns to care more for Marla, and Marla becomes more feminine and become more caring towards Jack. So, I think that if the paragraphs were in order from what happened in the beginning to what happened in the end, the article would have been a little bit easier for those who have not read the book or have not seen the movie to understand. The author kind of put what happens in the middle of the story in the beginning of the article, then what happened in the beginning, then what happened in the end. The writer uses easy to understand words, but the writing is not so informal that it makes the article boring to read or mute out the point. The point is still strong and easy to understand. I did not notice any tropes, and the writer did not really build herself a strong ethos because it seemed like she didn't really put her own input in, she mainly just used evidence from the book and movie.
There were only a few things that I noticed that contradicted the “rules” that I had learned over the years. The first and main one was with the introduction paragraph. Gibbs did not use any questions, or catchy phrases. She did not beat around the bush; she got to the point and said what she wanted to say. The other one was that she didn't use an obscene amount of quotes. I think that she only used one or two quotes. And even with out several quotes, she was still credible and understandable. If I could I would definitely like to be able to write and not have to use quotes to support everything that I say in that paper.
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