Tolerating Blind Obedience

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Tolerating Blind Obedience In “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” by Terry Tempest Williams, she writes about the high occurrence of breast cancer in her family and informs the reader on the rates of cancer generally in the Mormon community. By using personification, simile, allusion, and evidence to create sympathy and credibility. Williams writes about the history of breast cancer in her family and how the atomic bomb testing affected Utah. She also writes about people keeping quiet to avoid being labeled as communistic. The underling effect is to inform the reader that the cancer cases were caused by the atomic bomb testing and to reveal the view of the 50’s and how people were either for the government or they were considered communist. Williams begins her essay with important details that states the fact about her family “we are a Mormon family” her family was Mormon; they ate good foods, “women were finished having babies by the time they were thirty” therefore they had a very low rate of cancer (577). She uses this to establish credibility and to let the reader know that cancer was a one in a million occurrence in the Mormon community. It shows that the bomb testing were the cause of the cancer in her family. Williams then uses imagery to illustrate the way her mother looked after her surgery. “I’ll never forget her radiance the way she held herself in a purple velvet robe, and how she gathered us around her” (577). This creates a sense of sympathy for the author as she looks at her mother after surgery to remove cancerous cells. Williams’s purpose is to inform the reader about the effect of the atomic bomb testing on her family. As the story continues, she also uses an allusion to the suit filed against the U.S government “Allen V. The United States America” in regards to the cancer cases caused by nuclear weapon testing in Nevada (578). This creates

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