Although Christy Vannoy is one of
the least accomplished authors to be featured in The Best American Essays,
essentially having only a column to her name at the time of publishing these compilations, she still crafts a beautiful essay. Her essay, A
Personal Essay by a Personal Essay, is a satire on the personal essays that
appear quite commonly in women’s magazines. This essay is meant to
exemplify how the majority of the personal essays in these magazines are
getting over adversity, and how they are essentially all the same. These
stories, although terrible, happen to many people and they are not
very rare. Her point though is not that there are many hardships in the
world, but something entirely different. She is not trying to say that
there are a lot of hardships in the modern age, because that is obvious, but
she instead is trying to say how all of these authors try and one up each
other. She positions the essay behind a cocky personal essay who has been
through the wringer before. The essay has submitted many other essays and is a
veteran who is just sitting back and watching the rookies. The essay
listens to everyone else’s hardships and simply tries to one up them acting as
if all of their hardships are a dime a dozen, and saying that their writing
skills are subpar. All together Vannoy writes this essay for a laugh from
an older audience that is able to understand the fact that she is joking and
that shares the same views about the essays in women’s magazines. Without
her satirical position on this issue, though, she would give off a completely
different air. Instead of one of comedy and of ridicule it would be one
of hardship, and that is why her tone is so important. Without it her point would not get across, but with it the point is easy to understand and the
essay comes across beautifully.
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| Drawing Hands M. C. Escher |
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