A personal Essay by A Personal Essay by Christy Vannoy

This essay is about Christy Vannoy’s tragic life story and how she enters an essay into a woman’s magazine competing against several other writers.  She reads her essay to an editor how is pleased with her work and has it published in Marie Claire; in their November issue.  She listens to the other essays commenting on how their stories are less tragic and less deserving of the spot.  Even going so far to as claim “being gay is about as tragic as a stray cuticle.”(Vannoy 210-211.) The last writer is described as new to the circuit whose essay is not traumatic but about a regular Tuesday.  This is a sharp contrast with the other essays and confuses Vannoy.  Christy Vannoy is a writer for McSweeney’s, an American publishing house.  Her work manly consists of columns for their website and a few various essays.  The essay takes place in a workshop designed to help writers perfect their essays but in reality it was a ploy for each of the writers to get published in Marie Claire.  I believe Vannoy wrote this essay to show that a good essay is not about how tragic it is but how it is actually written.  Vannoy’s audience is fellow essay writers who judge a good essay on the shock factor of the tragedy instead of the quality of the work.  Vannoy uses a deep pathos in the beginning to draw in the emotions of the reader to her devastating life.  By drawing in the reader on her devastating life it enables the reader to look at the emotional points of the various essays which is latter used to show that quality work is more important then someone’s tragedy.  I believe Vannoy did achieve her purpose by explaining the writer’s excellent imagery of the cashier’s hand and by her ironic statement “But (sic) talent takes time.  Inoperable tumors just don’t sprout overnight, and psychotic are nothing if slow to boil.”  (212.)  Vannoy uses this quote to ironically state that a person’s work should not be judged by there hardships but by their own talent. 

Someone Is Always Worse Off Than You 

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"Winter conditions bring new hardship for more then 600,000 Syrian refugees."

"ReliefWeb." Winter Conditions Bring New Hardship for More than 600,000 Syrian Refugees. Reliefweb, 11 Jan. 2013. Web. 02 Sept. 2013.