Analysis of Dorothy Allison’s What Did You Expect Essay Example

Those personalities that are photographed continuously or those who are well known in terms of their appearances face fewer problems but the others who have a small number of photographs such as the writer herself, face problems. These problems can be related to their expected appearance and their original appearance. After reading the works of writer, Dorothy Allison, people use to make their own envisaged images and when they view the writer face to face, they find her different, not because the writer is really different to her photograph but because they expect her to be different according to their imagined shape and appearance.

Dorothy Allison by means of a full-fledged narrative essay delivers her point of view about people’s expectations and her reactions. She always felt uneasy in places where she had to face a number of people because people used to match her with her original image to her photographs. In the narrative, she has to get a photograph of her. It is shown that she always feels uneasy about having photographs. The photographer is continuously using a quote that she wants to make her photograph powdered with sugar but until the end, the photographer is shown as unsuccessful in getting a photograph, which is powdered, with sugar. The photograph wants to take a photograph of writer that is attractive and persuasive but the writer wants to be as original and natural in her photographs. She is uneasy with the photographer because she had hard experiences about her photographs as people always consider her different as compared to her photographs.

Unlike her other members of the family, she does not believe

in using makeup to conceal one’s personality and to wear a mask in order to be safe from the attacks of the people of the world. She wants to be as she is. When she reaches at an inn where she had a reservation, she was dealt with some kinds of doubts related to her being a writer. All this happened because of her attire and her casual behaviors. She noticed the receptionist keeping a close frowning on her, as she is a thief and not a writer at all. All of the circumstances that she faced were because of her outfit and her casualness. All that she liked in her daily routine was a little gloss at her lips and no heavy make up at her face.

Dorothy Allison also reports that she considers her like the working people of the lower classes and she belonged to a poor family. She was a bastard as she was born when her mother was unwed; this factor also added to her lack of confidence. Her mother used to conceal her smile when she used to laugh and like her mother, Dorothy Allison used to spread her hair on both sides of her face to conceal herself from the world. Both of them were alike as they used some strategies to veil themselves from the world. She also finds many similarities in her mother and herself like her facial appearance, her features, her physic and many others.

The intended audiences of the essay written by Dorothy Allison are her readers who expect her to be different, the photographer who likes to powder her with sugar,

interviewers and all other people who like to read her essays and other reading material. Her intended audience is a wide range of people. The form of the essay is a narrative essay as the writer uses to narrate her experiences of life to the incident of her being photographed. She highlights the narrative style by using the first person singular, “I” and by telling about her real events and incidents of her life in the first person.

According to my understanding, the subject matter is both publically and privately accepted because many people can face the same problems as are faced by Dorothy Allison. There is no difference between public perception and private perception of the topic. All the details given by the author are for making the essay persuasive and influential. Because of incidents told in the essay, the narrative is able to take the form in which, it appears. She informs about her uneasiness with the photographer and then moves towards the reasons behind her uneasiness and all these aspects make her essay persuasive. Her diction is quite simple and it is kept as such because people face no problem in getting her message.

The author narrates this essay in order to inform her readers about the troubles that she faces with their expectations. She also informs how she gets disturbed because of a number of events in her life. The writer, Dorothy Allison invites her readers in a private space and informs about her reactions and her feelings to wards different things. She published this narrative essay in a magazine by which, she publicized her private space. Writers want

to share their feelings about life with their readers due to which, they share their private lives with the readers in different forms such as narratives and autobiographies. Dorothy also wanted to share herself with her readers by writing the narrative, “What Did You Expect?”

The writing style of Dorothy is quite simple and straightforward. She uses a diction that is comprehensible and casual. She gives some real events in her essay to maintain the originality of the essay. She shows how people are surprised after seeing her face to face, because they keep expectations related to her personality.

After analyzing the article, I have found out that Dorothy Allison is quite a sensitive person and feels that she is unable to get what she have wished as she says in the essay, “What Did You Expect?” that she has failed in being different to her family entirely as she resembles with her mother in many terms. She wants to conceal herself from the world because they associate overly expectations related to her personality and appearance. Her method of deliverance of her point of views is not sarcastic or ironic, she has a simple and plain style and the readers are able to get her ideas and her delivered information without any difficulty because of the simplicity of her style and her diction.

The essay, “What Did You Expect?” is a persuasive writing with a clear and straightforward message that photographs of a person do not indicate towards the personality of a person as the readers of Dorothy Allison also doubted about her personality and appearance. Whenever people view her photographs and

compared her with her photographs, they always found her different and she always felt differently as compared to those people. After seeing photographs and after reading a writer’s writing, people associate some features to a person’s personality and after meeting him or her, they find her/him different on the basis of their expected personality. Dorothy Allison faced such comments and narrated the essay, “What Did You Expect?” in response to these comments by people on her personality.