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Analysis Of Doing Nothing Is Something By Quindlen

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In “Doing Nothing Is Something” Quindlen uses the either/or techniques to persuade the readers into believing her idea of “downtime is where we find ourselves.” Quindlen appeals to emotions when she explains that scheduling children down to unscheduled time is detrimental to their creativity and childhood. Quindlen first touches on how family time is no longer prevalent in our lives today; then moves quickly into the productivity of nothingness. “What would families do with family time if they took it back?” Quindlen uses a privileged suburb's one-time “Family Night” in New Jersey to show readers that family time is a thing of the past. The effect is to get the readers thinking about their own family time, or lack there of. While family time and down time are different subjects, they share the commonality of being suppressed into almost nonexistence. By beginning with that particular question, Quindlen reveals how little free time, by any definition, we have in our lives today. Quindlen implies that either a student is over worked and complete mess, or they are doing nothing and happy. Quindlen, appealing to parent's emotions, states that parents are to blame. “Adults did it.” with their distrust in their children, “... a kid who is not …show more content…

The article doesn't blame parents to guilt them; instead, it asserts that parents are acting out good intenions. They want their children to: be well rounded, gain confidence through doing well in competition, travel, make friends outside of school. The article even emotionally appeals to logic by stating parents are simply looking out for their child's economic future. If a child does nothing extra-curricular until he or she is eighteen, the chances of getting into a desired college is practically cut in half. The article appeals to parents by illuminating they are simply trying to their job of preparing their children for a prosperous

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