The shortest, yet possibly most
intriguing of the essays in The Best
American Essays is A Personal Essay
by a Personal Essay. Written by Christy Vannoy, this essay takes place
during the duration of a clinic led by “the Article’s Director and Editor for a
national women’s magazine,” but it never reveals where or for what magazine
specifically.
The only real evidence that Vannoy is
credible is that this essay is from McSweeney’s, a well-known American
publishing house. However, credibility is not of much issue because this is a
creative work with no information needed. In fact, it is all a narrative from
the point of view of a personal essay. During the story, this essay is in this writer’s
clinic in which personal essays are read and critiqued. Throughout the story,
the personal essay is sizing up the other essays and contemplating what makes a
good personal essay.
Vannoy’s purpose in writing this was to
highlight the fact that struggle makes good writing. Vannoy targets the
aspiring writer to get her point across that difficulty or rough times in one’s
life can make great stories.
Vannoy is able to prove her point through
humor. The internal monologue of the essay about other essays is both funny and
relatable. The essay thinks: “Every essay who’s been through chemo or tried
lesbianism ends up bald. Bald isn’t the story. Alopecia was heading in the
right direction, loving herself, but she was getting there all wrong” (Vannoy
210). Although this humor may be cold and cutting, Vannoy is able to portray
the faults in certain essays and how the essays could be better.
Besides using humor to prove that
struggle trumps bland personal essays that lack hardship, Vannoy uses the point
of view as a unique rhetorical device. Although this essay is short, the use of
an inanimate object personified throughout the whole essay is intriguing.
Without this device, this essay about essays would be exactly what it’s telling
the reader not to be when writing: dull. Therefore, the point of view proves a
point within a point: spice up your writing.
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