Content Warning: This section references terrorism and racial and religious prejudice, including Islamophobia.

Quindlen’s essay is brief, combining persuasion, sociohistorical arguments, and anecdotal and personal expository. In just eight paragraphs, she uses logos (appeals based on reasoning), ethos (appeals based on moral character), and pathos (appeals based on emotion) to persuade the reader of her point. While the essay does not follow a rigid structure, a rhetorical arc is nevertheless evident. The first half highlights and diagnoses problems with American society, particularly as they relate to the country living up to its ideal of egalitarianism. At about the midway point, Quindlen posits some questions related to these problems, offering some resolution in the essay’s second half while leaving other questions open for the reader to reflect upon.

Published for a wide readership in Newsweek’s online edition, the intended audience of this essay is all Americans. Quindlen may particularly be trying to reach those who are questioning what it means to be American or who are especially susceptible to scapegoating other Americans. Quindlen wrote this essay in the aftermath of an unprecedented traumatic event in US history.