Emily's Analysis of "Mother Eve"

Emily Barnett
11-14-11
RFIW Critical Analysis

Mother Eve Mentor for Today’s Women
Written By: Beverly Campbell


In society today we see the way that women are treated, many times we see women displayed as objects, or as being “dumb”, other times we see that women are subject to men. How did we get this idea and identity of women stuck in our culture? Why are people’s views so wrong? The answer to this for many can lead all the way back to the time of Adam and Eve. In Mother Eve Mentor for Today’s Women, Beverly Campbell uses logical appeals, emotional appeals and ethical appeals to effectively argue in the favor that Eve is a role model for Women and should be revered as a Mentor instead of a sinner and a failure as the first mother.

The first instance of a logical appeal in this work is when Campbell defines Eve as a power equal to her counterpart Adam, Campbell uses a logical tool in defining the word “help meet” as “as a savior” the second word means “equal” so thus through defining these words we see that Eve is a majestic saving power equal to that of Adam. Campbell’s argument that they are all the same and that women should be treated with respect because the scriptures state that men and women were made equal, many people do not understand this relationship because they misinterpret the meaning of the meaning of many of the things in the first chapters in Genesis. Eve is not subordinate; she has the same capabilities as Adam to make decisions and to be treated as an equal. Campbell then asks the question if Adam and eve are equal then why are women in general not treated equal as well. With the use of logical appeals Campbell is able to bring this point into perspective with real ideas of what the passage really meant not some interpretation by people in general.

the second instance used in this article is an emotional appeal, Campbell talks about her sister in law and how she had an emotional realization that if Eve was created equal to all men then so are other women, she then goes on to state that many other women will have this same emotion when they find out that Eve is equal. The clarification of this is supposed to show women that they have more worth then society and the world tells them they do because of misunderstanding of their worth. In this section of the work we also see that the main audience of this writing is the female population of the church who often have the feeling of low worth because men have the priesthood and are said to be above women in authority and in intelligence. We see through this argument though that women do not need to feel less then their counterparts because they are just as capable and as strong if not stronger then men.

The third instance we see that Campbell uses many ethical appeals to persuade her audience of the validity of her argument. She uses many references from the scriptures, prophets and other people in history and High leadership positions to prove her point to people about the importance of seeing Mother Eve as a mentor in the lives of women. She references Elder McConkie when she talks about Adam and Eve as equal partners; Adams name was used in the sense to designate the first couple as a unit. As Campbell uses many view point of men and other high standing figures in the Church she is able to more fully persuade her audience of the correctness of her argument and that other people in history have also said the same things she has, through this she shows women that she has authority to say these things and that her argument is as correct as other arguments that have been made.

Through the use of Logical, emotional and ethical appeals Campbell is able to argue that Eve should be seen as a role model to women and that in fact she is not a sinner who should not be followed, but indeed Eve is the mother of all and she should be revered as one of the great righteous people throughout history. Through her argument Campbell is able to effectively make this point in a very valid way that will make many people especially women of the church change their thinking because the thinking that they have now is only bringing society and this church as a whole down but it is as incorrect and misunderstood as it can get!