Brianna Moulton

ENGL-2600
Professor Brittney Stephenson
July 21, 2016

A Rhetorical Analysis of The Clan of One-Breasted Women

In Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, a collection of her own works,
Terry Tempest Williams included a particular creative non-fiction piece of hers titled The Clan
of One-Breasted Women. Terry Tempest Williams was born in Nevada in 1955 (Williams, 816)
putting her in the midst of many issues concerning the United States and the Soviet Union
involving the Cold War. Because of her life in this part of history, she was inspired to share her
experience concerning an environmental injustice thrust upon her family by the government. In
this piece, Williams tugs at the audiences intellectual reason as well as their emotions using a
variety of different literary elements woven in for the purpose of sharing this experience in the
respects of rhetoric and aesthetics.
One literary element Williams uses in this essay is irony. Irony is hidden throughout the
essay, but is particularly present in the beginning when she is introducing the issues her family
has been facing because of the actions of the U.S. Government. Having been born in Nevada and
lived in Utah, her family was exposed to radiation caused by the atomic bomb experiments done
there in the 1950s during the Cold War. She states the effects of the testing on her family, My
mother, my grandmothers, and six aunts have all had mastectomies. Seven are dead. The two
who survive have just completed rounds of chemotherapy and radiation (Williams, 816.) The
irony of the situation is that these women, in order to have a shred of a chance at living, have had
to go straight to surgery and radiation therapy, risking what their lives had left, to cure

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themselves of the disease that radioactive fallout had caused them to contract in the first place.
And this repeating situation, she states, is her family history (Williams, 816). Because of the
necessity of these disfiguring mastectomies and these life-threatening treatments to correct the
damage done to her and the females of her family, she named her family the Clan of OneBreasted Women, reinforcing the illogical irony of the necessary treatment but also the emotional
effects of the helpless situation her family faced due to their governing power.
The tone of the piece plays along with irony to express to the reader that given her
cultural background, that her family members shouldnt have been so sick. In the introduction,
she explains that because of the Word of Wisdom, an LDS heath law, Traditionally, as a group
of people, Mormons have a low rate of cancer (Williams, 816). This statement alone adds a tone
of contradiction, and frankly, ironysince members of the LDS church, or the Mormons, have
such strict guidelines as to what they may or may not drink or eat, they are a very healthy people.
Yet, in this essay, she describes the members of her family and other families like hers are
dropping like flies because of radiation-caused cancer despite their healthy lifestyles. This
situation in and of itself brings about an emotional register provoking feelings of injustice in the
readersthese are a healthy people; they shouldnt have any reason to be dying of such a violent
disease as cancer, but because of the actions of the U.S. Government, they are.
Along with irony and tone, mood also is very apparent in this piece, and it comes across
almost angry and rebellious. Because of the irony of the situation her people are facing, having a
horrible strand of cancer, she questions if her people are a cultural anomaly (Williams, 816) or
irregularity. Yet, she was one of the few that pointed blame on an outside source rather than just
bad genes (Williams, 816) or bad luck. She claims that she had been raised in deceit,
(Williams, 816) a powerful, emotion-provoking word, and realized that the sickness was no fault

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of theirs, but was of the governments. Continuing this cry of injustice and deceit, she explains
that because of the conditions of the United States and their position against another powerful
world force, the health of the American citizens was secondary to national security (Williams,
818). With this statement, she momentarily (or perhaps permanently) pulls the readers into her
mood of angergiving them a perspective of how her health and the health of her loved ones
was put aside for another cause when health is the issue of importance being dealt with here. She
reinforces her cry of injustice once again by deliberately pointing blame on the U.S. Government
for their diseased condition, but addressing it in an almost sarcastic manner. She states: To our
court system, it does not matter whether the United States Government was irresponsible,
whether it lied to its citizens or even that citizens died from the fallout of nuclear testing. What
matters is that our government is immune. The King can do no wrong. (Williams, 816). This
properly and explicitly details the authors feelings and opinion about the subject, and conveys
the indifference of the government to the audience, triggering the audiences opinions on the
mindset of the government versus the suffering of its people. This mood particularly appeals to
aesthetics and rhetoric in this example.
The style of this essay ties emotions and logic into powerful lines, written occasionally to
create an incredible impact on the reader. For example, going back to the beginning of the essay,
Williams, upon informing the reader of her familys condition, says This is my family history,
(816). This statement informs the reader that this is how all of her previous family members have
left this worldall because of cancer and disease, nothing else. This is the history of her family;
how they all died. Upon informing the readers of one woman living in southern Utah who had
been twice widowed, she stated He [her husband] died of leukemia in 1956. Her second
husband died of pancreatic cancer in 1978, (Williams, 818.) Not once, but twice this particular

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woman was robbed of a husband because of cancer and radiation-related disease. Because of her
peoples faith in the LDS gospel and the near refusal for them to blame the government as to not
rock the boat or create waves in the tranquility of their environment, she states, Godfearing people. This is just one story in an anthology of thousands, (Williams, 818) meaning
that her people were not the only sufferers of this problemthey were one of thousands.
Because of these short, precise, powerful sentences, her style of writing greatly impacted the
rhetoric and aesthetic aspects of literature, and sent a rather loud cry of injustice to the audience.
In conclusion, Terry Tempest Williams essay, The Clan of One-Breasted Women,
conveys a very strong message about injustice; injustice particularly thrust upon her family and
friends by the U.S. Government. Her opinion and feelings in this essay are strongly present,
given that this non-fiction piece is one of her own life experience. She not only reveals these
feelings to the reader, but also shares them mutually. She appealed to the readers emotions,
aesthetics, and rhetoric by using multiple modes of literary elements in the work.

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Works Cited
Williams, Terry Tempest. The Clan of One-Breasted Women. 816-822.: SLCC Canvas, n.d. Web.
Salt Lake Community College PDF file.