Irreconcilable Dissonance

With divorce rates so high, Brian Doyle investigates a couple reasons why couples are splitting.

Source: Wood, Sarah. Wedding Cake Split. Digital image. Free Wood Post RSS. N.p., 26 June 2013. Web. 24 Aug. 2013.

Having been happily married to his only wife for years, Brian Doyle witnesses other couples around him getting divorced for what seem like petty reasons. He decides that the spectrum between married and divorced is very large, leaving room for the growing potential for divorce in every marriage. Irreconcilable Dissonance discusses divorces, and why once-married couples chose to get them. Brian Doyle, explores some bizarre explanations for divorce, including one couple that got a divorce "on the grounds of irreconcilable dissonance". Tiny anecdotes like these help Doyle show readers that divorce can happen at any time for almost any reason. They offer glimpses into half a dozen marriages that end in divorce. Also, the author ends the essay with a clever aphorism formed by a contradiction: "The instant there is no chance of death is the moment of death", where divorce is death. It leaves something with the reader to think about and therefore results in them contemplating divorce, and how accurate Doyle's point is. This essay was written for anyone who is married, considering marriage, or considering divorce. Doyle's purpose in writing Irreconcilable Dissonance is to inform readers that divorce is always imminent. Although Doyle shows the reader that divorce is common and can happen for nearly every reason, his true purpose is to convince readers that divorce is a slippery slope and actually not to be taken lightly. At the University of Portland, Brian Doyle is the editor of Portland Magazine. Brian Doyle is also an author who graduated from Notre Dame University before working for various magazine and newspaper companies as an editor. He is currently an editor for Portland Magazine, an award-winning quarterly magazine, at the University of Portland. The author accomplished his purpose using reverse psychology. By writing about ridiculous explanations for divorce, he leaves the reader feeling like divorcing for such a reason would be foolish. Since most people do not want to be considered foolish, they will likely avoid divorcing their spouse unless there's a legitimate reason. Without realizing it, Doyle lets the reader convince themselves of his purpose.