Therkelsen 1
Brenda Therkelsen
En 1020-30
Rhetorical Analysis
7/5/2013
She Might as Well Been Hitler
Suzanne Britt, a sweet North Carolinian whit an M.A in English, wrote the Essay I
am about to analyze. You may look at the tittle of my analytical paper and say “why
would she choose such a provocative title?” I actually didn’t choose this tittle; it was the
first thing that crossed my mind after reading “That Lean & Hungry look”. She expresses
her hate for “Thin” people and encourages her love for “Fat” people. Explains how thin
people are boring and way to serious when fat people are fluffy and inviting. This essay
is a great example on how the author uses the context and the text to portray two
different opinions. The context looks at the time the essay was published, 1978, a time
when obesity was not talked about or discussed. The text gives the audience a shock
factor that Britt created to insight thoughts and conversation on a subject that was taboo
to speak about at that time (82-84).
Britt uses two separate voices in this essay that are in complete conflict with
each other. The surface voice makes fun of thin people by pointing out all the bad things
they do “they’re forever rubbing their bony hands together and eying new problems to
tackle” and “thin people are downers. They like math and morality and reasoned …” the
second voice is hiding in the context, all do surface voice is pointing out negative things
Therkelsen 2
about thin people, the context of her statements are positive. The two voices switch
when surface voice speaks about “fat” people, she points out how fun it is to be a fat
person because “fat people realize that life is illogical and unfair. They know very well
that god is not in his heaven and all is not right in the world” and “fat people see all
sides. The sides fat people see are rounded blobs, usually gray, always nebulous and
truly not worth worrying about” but if you look at context voice, you would see how
everything surface voice points out about fat people is negative. She uses both voices
to pull everything inside out, she wants her audience to have a reaction yet not be
offended by the context; it’s a good strategy to not offend people when speaking of a
touchy subject (82-84).
It makes the reader wonder if they have ever told a fat friend or family member
that they needed to lose weight because they thought they were helping that person
out, but did it in a cruel and out of place manner. Britt essay shows you that one
person’s perspective on helping someone out can look like someone being up in
everyone’s business. It breaks the ice on the obesity issue and opens door for
discussion. after I read Britt paper I wonder if my cousin (who is overweight) ever had
these types of thoughts about skinny people, if she felt like she was being attacked or
push to do things by her family who continue to point out her “weight issue.” It made me
dig deep and try to recall any time in my life that I had ever made a weight comment to
her or any other overweight person and thought “maybe my helpful comments might
have been mean and rude?” These are the questions Britt paper made me think about.
But I also think that if you were an overweight person reading her essay you would think
“maybe thin people tell us to lose weight because they care and want to help?.” Britt
Therkelsen 3
essay opens plenty of doors for both “thin” people and “fat” people to have a healthy
conversation about obesity and self-opinion.
I tried researching Suzanne Britt, to gain a deeper understanding of her essay
and to answer a question I had been asking myself the whole time I was reading her
paper “was Britt a thin person or a fat person?” but I could not find any information
online, not even a picture. I did discover that she had written a book with a similar
subject “skinny people are dull and crunchy like carrots” but this only made me wonder
even more if she was thin or fat. It would have been good to know this information
because I could figure out what she used as the base for her essay logos, pathos or
ethos. If Britt was fat herself she would have use pathos as the base of her essay,
getting inspiration from her emotions, values and beliefs. As a reader and being thin I
would sympathize with her condition and read her essay in a Logos point of view. If Britt
was thin she would have used Logos as the base of her essay, appealing to people’s
reason and common sense. As a thin reader I would see her essay in an ethos point of
view, wondering how credible the speaker was on this topic.
My conclusion of this essay is that conversations about obesity need to be talked
about in a non-judgmental way. Nothing is black and white and sometimes we need to
sit down and understand each other for what we are “people” not “fat people” or “thin
people.” This essay has really open my mind about how my perspective is not everyone
else perspectives. That what I think might be a problem can be a solution or a way of
life for someone else.
Therkelsen 4
Work Cited
Britt, Suzanne. “That Lean and Hungry Look.” Readings for Writers. Ed. Bedford/St.
Martin’s. Boston. 2012. 82-84. Print.