Patterns of Development Analysis In Jody Heyman’s essay “We Can Afford to Give Parents a Break,” she uses various patterns of development such as exemplification, and classification and division. Heyman uses exemplification to provide information about countries that have not guaranteed paid maternity leave as well as give examples of how the myths can be refutated.
These myths state that: one the United States can’t compete while offering policies that would markedly improve the lives of most American parents and children, two decent working conditions will lead to high unemployment, and three decent working conditions will inhibit economic growth. Furthermore, she includes classification and division in order to emphasize that the United States is not what it seems to be since it falls into unexpected categories such as failure to support families.
Heyman’s use of classification and division strengthens her argument in that she provides clear and exact information about which categories the United States falls into including unexpected ones as well. For instance, the United States is placed in a category that includes countries that have not found a way to guaranteed paid maternity leave. When she places the United States in this category she simply says “The ones that haven’t are Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, Lesotho, and the United States. Heyman does not use extra words to get to the point; she directly tells the audience what she is saying. In addition, the fact that United States is grouped with these countries is unexpected because the US is a well developed and big country while these countries are not as developed and small in that if people did not know it existed they would not be able to find it on a map. Furthermore, Heyman places the US in the category of failure to support families.
In the US “there is no guaranteed that mothers will be able to safeguard their infants in this way,” which is breast-feeding. This is a failure to support families because America does not ensure that “mothers can take time from work to breast-feed their infants,” while 76 countries do. People would expect the United States to guarantee this feature because “Happy Mother’s Day” is a national holiday that celebrates moms everywhere across the country. “Happy Mother’s Day” implies that mothers are very important to the
US, but not guaranteeing breast-feeding breaks shows quiet the opposite. Also, Heyman uses simple words such as “take time and infants” to ensure that the readers understand what she is talking about. The United States is not what it seems to be on the outside. The outside is just a cover for the inside of the United States which is a country that does not care about the well being of the people despite the claim that it is a “country for the people”.
