In Motoko Rich’s article “Craving Freedom, Japan’s Women Opt Out of Marriage,” he uses a classic anecdotal style structure to tell the story.
Rich opens the story with a detailed scene of Sanae Hanaoka’s wedding for herself. By beginning the story this way, Rich immediately pulls the reader in to her moment, making them want to learn more. In a typical anecdotal style story, one would begin with a lead then transition into more general facts and background knowledge, and finish with a conclusion of some sort. In this case, the lead was this opening scene of Hanaoka’s wedding scene.
Rich then makes the transition into the harder facts and background knowledge of the marriage situation in Japan. He makes this transition with his paragraph (immediately following the scene):
Photo pulled from the New York Times Article
“Not so long ago, Japanese women who remained unmarried after the age of 25 were referred to as “Christmas cake,” a slur comparing them to old holiday pastries that cannot be sold after Dec. 25.”
After creating the scene of Hanaoka getting married to herself, and then stating this fact about the stereotype of single women in Japan, Rich creates a smooth transition into the body of facts for the story. He goes on to report on multiple sources of data that explain how and why the choice to be single for women in Japan is rising.
Rich uses photos and quotes from several other sources throughout this section of the story, to create a well-rounded narrative and explanation for the reader, before going back to Hanaoka’s story.
Rich transition’s back to her story by bringing the reader back into another scene: Hanaoka taking a dance class, in her element and daily life of being a single woman. He swiftly brings the reader through this scene, showing more of her personality, daily routine and lifestyle. As he takes the reader back into her story, he concludes the piece by returning to his initial scene at her wedding saying,
“When loneliness creeps in, she pulls up the video of her ceremony to remind her of the people who support and love her.”
He concludes with a quote from Hanaoka, about how she feels empowered doing what she wants – away from the marriage. By using the anecdotal structure, Rich was able to bring the reader directly into context of his story by beginning with a narrative scene, and quoting real women dealing with these issues, as opposed to just spitting out the facts and figures.