To understand a work’s rhetorical power, it is important to comment on both its status as a personal essay and on the topics it conveys. Rebecca Mcclanahan’s titular essay Interstellar utilizes metaphors, analogies, and direct comparisons to discuss the topics of envy, sisterhood, beauty, and family favoritism. This analysis examines the ways in which the work explores these topics after re-establishing its genre as a personal essay according to the existing definitions common within the industry.
As a genre of non-fiction, personal essays are frequently able to overlap with other literary forms due to their relatively loose defining characteristics. A personal essay is a genre form that seeks to communicate a significant life lesson learned via the author’s experiences. The essay frequently tells the story of a momentous event in the first person, and it may be written in a variety of genres, including formal essays and creative non-fiction.
A personal essay can also be an opinion article, expressing one’s viewpoint on a certain political or social issue or topic of interest. The writer of this form of personal essay might identify the problem, offer answers, and then write a conclusion—which must include a key point. Whatever the writer says, it is a topic that he or she is interested in. Frequently, the writer tries to convey the truth or reality as he or she sees it, occasionally addressing questions that require no specific answer. The writer may as well investigate a subject from his own point of view. When expressing a personal opinion, it is imperative writer refrain from lecturing, preaching, or moralizing. In other words, the writer must offer their viewpoint in such a way that the readers may make an informed decision.
With these concepts in mind, one might categorize the titular essay as work on sibling rivalry and uneven relationships between sisters. It is largely a reflection of the author’s personal experiences, or, at least, this assumption is commonly accepted due to the first-person narrator in the piece. Such narration brings an audience closer to the lyrical heroine, allowing them to sympathize with her: the less beautiful and less noticed in her own house.
In a family with more than one kid, sibling rivalry will always exist, whether through comparing, fighting, jealousy, or other means. The competition is fueled by both parents and children, and the incidents of such rivalry mate take place on a regular basis. Parents may find sibling rivalry tough and frustrating, but they must deal with it on a daily basis. Sibling rivalry is defined as when one or more siblings compete with one another or strive to imitate their brother’s or sister’s behavior. Fighting, for its part, is not the same as rivalry. Striving for their parents’ affection and attention, children sometimes tend to develop deep resentment and live-long conflicts.
Sisters may jeopardize one another’s status in the family and in society, often unknowingly or unintentionally. The behavioral patterns of sibling rivalry and jealousy can start early in life. When a little girl sees her mother and sibling embrace, she may feel envious. On the cause of sister rivalry, professional opinion is split. The author pinpoints the overarching cause of the societal obsession with beauty and the general fascination that follows it. The rhetorical power behind the narrative largely relies on it successfully recycling the most relevant and topical problems faced by any woman worldwide.
An analysis should be conducted on the subject of the social reasons and consequences of the contemporary cultural preoccupation with beauty. Although Western Civilisation appears to be in decline, we have never been more committed to enhancing our appearance through cosmetic and surgical beauty rituals. With Western economies in decline and more media exposure, many girls, women, and even men spend less time working and more time focusing on their appearance. In such a way, they hope to become famous or find a successful spouse. A high-maintenance beauty program that comes at a hefty price is a metaphor for a lottery ticket to a better life. The rise in the monetary worth of the worldwide and US beauty markets demonstrates that this is not a passing fad. The obsession with beauty is evident and yet cannot fully explain the personal drama behind the titular essay, which stems from parental favoritism and familiar hypocrisy.
In its most basic form, “family love hypocrisy” refers to the commitment of love between family members. While the expression of love may concern any family member, when this commitment of emotion of ‘I love you decreases to merely words and not behavior toward one other, it is characterized as family hypocrisy. Family love has a low degree of trust, and they have the impression that they do not love each other. A hypocritical parent, according to psychology, is one who wants their kid to do something that they themselves do not do (Mcclanahan 103). In this sense, the concept of ‘family love hypocrisy’ is evident in the view that parents want their children to love them, but they do not love them back. When one child exhibits a socially justified advantage over another, parental favoritism occurs within this framework.
It might also be regarded as hypocrisy if parents profess to love their children but demonstrate that they do not via their acts and conduct. Practice demonstrates that children follow through on their parents’ intentions. Reasonably, if parents do not treat their children with gentleness and do not demonstrate appropriate affection for them, they cannot expect their children to reciprocate the love and respect. When hypocrisy causes uneven treatment within the family, it results in resentment, hurt, and a lack of connection and trust between family members. In this regard, an essay in question is full of sorrow more than envy or anger, allowing the speculators to assume that the relationship is likely to be repaired.
Rhetorical analysis of a text or other literary work may aid in better understanding the author’s message and evaluating the author’s style and method. It was conducted to discuss the primary themes of the work and assess the relation they have to the project participants. Simultaneously, rhetorical analysis is always focused on two aspects of textual analysis: textual and contextual. In this regard, rhetorical analysis of personal narratives, such as diaries, is especially notable. Indeed, it allows the reader to get insight into the narrator’s mind and soul, allowing them to sense his or her emotions, thoughts, and sentiments. Here it serves the general topics of sisterhood, envy, familial favoritism, and lack of trust, as well as the overarching sadness of the uneven family relationship.
Work Cited
Mcclanahan, Rebecca. Interstellar. Routledge, 2020, pp. 99-105.