Anna Quindlen

Anna Quindlen, "Evan's Two Moms"

Anna Quindlen (1953- ) was born in Philadelphia and earned a B.A. from Barnard College in 1974. She's worked as a reporter for The New York Post and The New York Times, and as a columnist for the latter paper. Quindlen writes novels including One True Thing (1994), which was made into a successful movie in 1998, and Black and Blue (1998). She also contributes frequently to periodicals such as The Writer, Good Housekeeping, American Health for Women, and Newsweek. Using an accessible style, she often writes about family issues, and much of her work carries a strong emotional charge. Quindlen won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for her commentary in the New York Times. "Evan's Two Moms," a look at same-sex marriage, was first published in 1992 in the New York Times and collected in Quindlen's Thinking Out Loud (1993).

CONTENT

1. What jobs do Evan's two moms hold?
2. What, according to the author, is "the linchpin of family"?
3. According to Quindlen, how do gay people and straight people differ on the notion of gay marriage?
4. Describe the circular argument the author mentions in paragraph six.
5. Describe the case of Loving v. Virginia.
6. What are some of the financial disadvantages same-sex couples face compared to mixed-sex couples?

STRATEGY AND STYLE

1. At the end of paragraph one, the author employs a series of fragments. How does this usage reflect her feelings about family?
2. What is Quindlen's argument here? Outline her main points and types of support for each in as much detail as you can.
3. Quindlen points out an irony in paragraph seven. What is it? How does this irony illuminate her discussion of gay marriage?
4. Take a look at the examples the author provides in paragraph five. The last one is different from the others. How does it differ and why do you think the author included it? What would change about the tone of the paragraph without this last example?

1. Describe your relationship with your mother. How can you relate this relationship to your reading?
2. How important is your sex to your self-image? How might your self-image change if your sex changed? How might these feelings have affected your reading?

SUGGESTIONS FOR SUSTAINED WRITING

1. Quindlen discusses how a situation with "emotional truth" can change when it becomes a legal matter. Pick another situation—a couple living together who decide to get married, a married couple living apart who decide to make their separation legal, or something else you come up with—and write an essay exploring the impact of the legal upon the emotional.
2. At the end of her essay the author suggests that love and commitment form the basis of a good marriage. Do people always get married with these things in mind? What other reasons might lead people to marriage? Do you have any problem with the notion that gay people might want to get married for different reasons that straight people do?

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Do some research to find out how attitudes about same-sex marriage have changed, if at all, since this piece was written in 1992. If they have, has this change in attitude been reflected in the law? If they haven't, should attitudes change? Explain. How did your research deepen your understanding of the issues presented in this essay?

WEB CONNECTION

Did you know that Quindlen has been a contributor to the movies? Here is a movie review of One True Thing. Have you seen it? After reading this review, do you want to? Explain.

LINKS

Biographical

This is a brief bio of Quindlen with some links from Online-Library.org. How comfortable would you be using some of the information here in a paper about this author? Explain your answer.

Here is her profile from a lecture agent. Compare the information here with that from the page mentioned above. What appears on this page that the other page doesn't pay much attention to?

Interested in this author's personal history? Here Quindlen explains how she came to love books. How does she relate reading and writing? How do you?

Bibliographical

This is an excerpt from A Short Guide to a Happy Life. Take a look at the accompanying photographs. Describe them in as much detail as you can. How do they complement the text?

Hungry for some multimedia featuring this author? This page has links to a video clip, an audio clip, and the transcript of an interview Quindlen did promoting her book Thinking Out Loud.

Here is the commencement address she gave at Mount Holyoke College in 1999. What is the theme of her speech? What does Quindlen have to say about learning? What does she have to say about being happy?

Cultural

This is the citation for her Pulitzer Prize. Do you recognize any of the other authors on this page? How would you go about getting some information about them?

This is a review of her book Black and Blue. Can you tell what the novel is about from this review? What kinds of questions can you ask yourself about it that only the book itself can answer?