Notes on Elements of Essays

  

Elements  of Essays

1.1 The Essay as a Form of Literature

Essay is a form of literature which is persuasive in nature. It is basically non fictional prose works of limited length. The word essay is derived from the French verb essayer which means to try or to attempt. The Frenchman Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) was the first author to describe his work as essays; he used the term to characterize these as "attempts" to put his thoughts adequately into writing, and his essays grew out of his commonplace observations. It was used as a means of exploring himself and his ideas about human experience. Generally, essay is regarded as a practical and factual piece of writing which is designed to report something, or explain something, or make a case for something. So essays are likely to be systematically organized, factually detailed, closely reasoned and plainly written. Essays intend to get something done. In another word, an essay is thinking on paper which can be short or long, practical or playful, fictional or factual.

Main Idea *   Essay as persuasive & non fictional literature *   The word essay derived from the French verb essayer meaning to try *   Montaigne - as a means of exploring himself and his ideas about human experience. *   Essayists write to make a point and try to persuade *   Provides aesthetic pleasure to its readers *   Utilitarian essays aim to provide knowledge, to carry out action

In fact, to be persuasive is the key feature of every essay. The purpose of essayist in any piece of writing is to make a point and try to persuade readers in his point. In order to persuade the readers, the writer uses supporting points, examples and references. Essayist tries to convince and draw the agreement of readers on the point forwarded by him. The objective behind essay is not to change entire world.

Another objective of writing essay is to provide aesthetic pleasure to its readers. In other words, it aims at providing pleasure to the readers. In this respect, it becomes literary. Rather than being purely utilitarian, literary essays are written to achieve literary effects on the readers. By using imaginative and literary forms of language, they lead us away from this mundane world to another beautiful and imaginative world or fictional world. It can be written with the purpose of entertainment. For example, George Orwell in his essay ‘Shooting an Elephant’ not only makes a persuasive point about political situation but he also tells a good story using effective literary techniques and devices. Through this he generates aesthetic pleasure to the readers. Essays are as complete and artistically effective as a chair, a candle stick, or a bowl. They are useful and at the same time beautiful. Essays are also not only practical but beautiful and pleasant also. Literary essayists, instead of rousing us in to action, lead us to imaginative and aesthetic contemplation.

Finally, an essayist is a more philosopher and less a scientist. But he has the quality of all i.e. a poet, noveslist, etc. The essayist can be compared with a person who performs his privacy and at the same time invites us to look at his private affairs. Every essayist tries to provide pleasure through his writing. He picks up the materials from day to day life which comes as a surprise when we read them.

1.2 The Essay and Other Forms of Literature

Essay is basically factual in detail and persuasive in nature. It uses words to describe and establish particular idea. The essay generally, uses words to establish some particular ideas which are directly addressed to the readers. So, persuasion can be said to be the essence of an essay. But essay can not totally confine itself only as a form of persuasion rather it uses and employs the techniques and devices of other literary forms like story, drama and poetry. Essays are often categorized depending on what techniques and devices they employ. For instance, sometimes essays use story telling narrative technique, some uses poetic meditation and some employs dramatic elements like setting, characters and dialogue. The complex and rich combination of such various possible forms and devices has often made essays a distinct genre of literature. So an essay can be narrative, poetic or dramatic.

Main Idea *   Uses words to establish ideas which are directly addressed to the readers *   It can use techniques and devices of other genres *   Argumentative essays are factual and persuasive in nature *   In narrative essay an outside narrator tells a story *   Dramatic essay takes the form of a dialogue between two or more characters *   In poetic essay the speaker appears to be talking to himself *   Persuasion is at the heart of all essays

The essayists try to persuade us by means of an appeal and direct address to the readers.  But sometimes essayist can use an outside narrator with a story or stories to tell. Such essays having a story teller and a complete story to tell is called narrative essay. In narrative essay, the narrator repots us events directly. Though based on some facts and real events, the narrator tells about events in the form of history. A narrative essay sees its subject in time and presents it in the form of history.

In the same way, dramatic essay uses the dramatic elements like setting, characters, dialogue and actions based on some sort of realistic event. It takes the form of a dialogue between two or more characters. And author is present only to perform the role of a director. He sets the scene and identifies the characters whose words and actions are to be witnessed by the readers.

Poetic essay concentrates on minor or small event in order to bring sudden knowledge or understanding about some event or idea. In it the speaker appears to be talking to himself rather than to the readers and others. Whatever the author contemplates or meditates is not heard directly but overheard by the readers.

The four types of literary genres and their dominant qualities can be identified with the help of the following diagram:

The above diagram presents the distinct and unique literary features of each form of literature and their close relationship with other genres. We can draw relationship among the above four dominant genres on the basis of the purpose of how words are used in them. Story and play, for instance, are closely related as they both ‘use words to create imaginary persons and events’. Similarly, essay and poem are closely related as they both ‘use words to express ideas and feelings’. Again, on the basis of whether words are addressed directly or overheard by the readers we can draw relationships between them. In story and essay, for insance, ‘words are addressed directly to the readers while in play and poem ‘words are overheard by the raeders’. The above diagram shows that all the four genres are related to one another, and that they share many qualities and techniques of others.

All these convey that writing an essay means looking at any event from a particular angle of the writer. When they describe something they simply record what they see from their perspective. They implicitly ask us to take their words for what it looks like. Thus persuasion is at the heart of all essays. But yet the writers mingle the techniques and devices of other literary forms like poetry, drama and the story.

1.3 The Essayist and the Reader

There is a close relationship between the essayists and the readers. It is because the essayist plays the role of addresser and the readers, in response, play the role of receivers. Sometime he does not address the reader directly. While reading an essay we are likely to feel that the author is directly speaking to us. Even if speaking indirectly, we take for granted that the person we hear is nobody other than the essayist. If we think about the matter seriously we will see that essayists are not exactly the same in their essays as they are in real life. It means the person speaking in the essay is a disguised or fictional personality rather than the real personality of the essayist. They are made up of words but not of flesh and blood. That’s why the personality in the essay is created one. The essayists create any narrator who speaks for him. The essayist, thus, has dual personalities, one as an essayist and another as a person. Thus the particular personality conveyed in an essay is always in some sense a fiction because they are imaginative in nature rather than real and created sometimes out of words alone.

Essayists can create any impression of themselves that they wish. It means the same essayist may appear in different personality in different essays. They can appear stuffy (boring) or relaxed, serious or flippant (superficial), confident or nervous, wise or foolish. The possibilities are limitless and they are a product not only of what the essayist has to say but also of how they say it. He may choose any position or any way of speaking that’s why, for a reader it is important to observe the style of the essayist.

Main Idea *   The essayists and the readers have close relationship *   The speaker/narrator in the essay is not the author *   The person speaking in the essay is a fictional personality of the essayist *   The essayis can create any personality for his narrator: stuffy, serious, flippant, foolish

In order to identify and understand the voice of the speaker the readers have to carefully hear the particular words they choose and the particular way they choose to put them together in sentences and sequences of sentences. Once we are attentive to essayist’s fictional self, we can also approach properly to the literary form of essay. The form of a literary essay is shaped by the particular personality through which it is conveyed.

1.4 Approaching an Essay

In approaching an essay we should first read it through for our own pleasure. Following this first reading, we should review it quickly and assign it tentatively to one of four types i.e. narrative essay, dramatic, essay, meditative or poetic essay and persuasive essay.

We can approach any literary essay by following the strategies given below:

i)      Approaching a Persuasive or Argumentative essay: If the essay is directly persuasive-argumentative read it a second time, more analytically than the first time. Then we should examine its arrangement to see how the author has structured his persuasion. We should examine its arguments, particularly any analogies used or assertions made, for (a) their accuracy in themselves, and (b) the extent of their relevance to the point being made. We should consider any assumptions required by these assertions or analogies. Then we should consider the personality of the essayist and the kind of role it invites you to play. Finally, formulate your response to the view presented and evaluate the presentation.

ii)      Approaching a Narrative essay: If the essay in narrative, we should pay attention to its narrative elements in our second reading. We should try to divide the story into its meaningful parts and consider the way description, dialogue, and commentary work in each part-how they contribute to the events being narrated. After we have focused on these elements, we should look for passages of special thematic import in which the author steps back from the story to comment on its significance, to offer an interpretation of the story. We should consider the persuasive force of the story in supporting the ideas the author is proposing. Then we should consider the implied personality of the essayist both during the narrative sections and the interpretive parts, and how that affects our response to the essay. Finally, we might ask ourselves if we find the essay convincing-both as narrative and persuasion.

iii)     Approaching a Meditative or Poetic essay: If the essay is meditative, our re-readings should be especially close and careful in their attention to the associative play of mind with words, images, and ideas. We should consider how one detail generates, or suggests, another, and explain, if we can, the process that leads the author from one detail or idea to the next. The sort of examination that we think of as appropriate for poetry is appropriate for the meditative essay as well. We should pay special attention, then, to tone and imagery. Only after we have made an investigation of this kind should we begin to ask questions about the persuasive dimension of the essay.

iv)     Approaching a Dramatic essay: If the essay is in dialogue form, our second reading should concentrate on its dramatic elements- character, setting, and a plot. We should consider whether any one character seems to speak with the author's authority behind him; and if we feel this to be the case, we should investigate the details that have led us to that view, in order to determine whether the evidence is really sufficient for this to be an appropriate response. We should be alert for any words of scene-setting, as this may be a way of inserting some narrative commentary into a dialogue. The scene-setter may speak with the author's voice. Finally, we should look for some dramatic movement toward a climax, in order to determine the relation between the dramatic form and the persuasive purpose of the essay.

v)     Approaching essay that borrows elements from other forms: An essay may in fact be a combination of the basic form, and the longer it is, the more likely is it to combine the various possibilities in rich and complex ways. We should try to be tactful and vary our approach to suit and the various in the work we are reading. We should remember that reading an essay or any other work of literature, like carrying on a human relationship, requires attentiveness, flexibility, and responsiveness.

vi)     When we read poetry, drama and fiction, we should be alert for the essay-like dimensions of these literary forms. The ability to analyze the essay with sense and sensibility will stand us in good position dealing with different literary forms.

2.  Types of Literary Essays

2.1 The essay as argument: Persuasion (Argumentative Essay)

Main Idea *   Persuasion is the main goal of this essay *   Use of supporting points, examples, reasons and references. *   Simple and direct sentences *   Stated boldly *   Main idea is given in the very beginning *   Use of analogy *   Technique of comparision and constrast

Persuasion is the heart of all essays. Persuasion refers to an essay establishing a point and making a case for something supported by other supporting points, examples, reasons and references. So to establish a point and make a case for something in an essay and to make readers believe upon that point giving justification and supporting point is called a persuasive or argumentative essay. The basic features of persuasive essay are the use of simple and direct language, use of analogy, use of comparison and contrast, direct address to the readers, strong analysis of idea and examples and references.

Unlike meditative essays, which are loose in structure and informal in tone, argumentative essays make their claims directly and explicitly.  Though argumentative essays assume various patterns of organization, they share a basic concern: to establish a point by providing evidence to support it.  The support may take the form of examples, analogies, facts, statistics, anecdote, and evidence.  In addition, argumentative essayists may present counterviews and counterarguments either to dismiss or demolish them.

First of all simplicity and directness is the major feature of persuasive essay. The main point is simply and directly stated in persuasive essay so that the readers may easily understand it. For example in ‘Cocksure Women and Hensure Men’, D.H. Lawrence in the very first line simply and directly states that there are two types of qualities of women: demure and dauntless.

Use of analogy as subpoint or supportive point is another feature of persuasive essay. Analogy is to make or create a situation with objects and activities having certain atmosphere which is comparable to major point or major situation. Analogy enables writer to convince the reader by making comparison. For example, Lawrence presents the condition of modern women because of their cocksureness in the essay ‘Cocksure Women and Hensure Men’ by using the analogy of a chicken farm and hens’ activities which is unnatural and unusual.

When the essay is argumentative, the essayist acts as a speaker and tries to establish a point. Main points are usually given in the beginning of the essay. To support the main point the analogy must be suitable. In other words, the success of the essayist depends on the reasonable and appropriate use of analogy.

Finally the use of examples and references, analysis etc. also can be used to make the argumentative point strong and convincing in the persuasive essay. For example, D. H. Lawrence brings the analogy of chicken farm to express the features of modern men and women. 

2.2 The essay as story: History

It uses elements of story like narrator and narrative stories based on some specific historical event. Essay is persuasive by nature. Though essay is persuasive; it sometimes uses the elements of story. In narrative essay, there is a narrator. The narrator tells a story. But the story told in narrative essay has some sort of connection to the historical event.

Midway between the formality of the argumentative essay and the informality of the meditative essay are narrative essays.  Narrative essays include stories, sometimes a single incident, as in George ‘Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” (1936), or sometimes multiple events, as in Ephron’s ‘The Hurled Ashtray’.  The stories in narrative essays are almost always autobiographical: they form a part of the writer’s experience.

Such narrative story in essay is built around a specific event or situation having the existence in particular time and space. Narrative essay becomes a record of such historical event. The story told in an essay remains either highly personal or autobiographical, or as impersonal as a journalistic story of current affairs. It focuses on a particular event or sequence of events.  It may concentrate on a place or person. Through all these it tells us the "truth" about something that is itself factual or historical.

Main Idea *   It uses elements of story *   The story has connection to the historical event *   It focuses on a particular event or sequence of events *   The events exist in particular time and space *   It tells us the "truth" about something that is itself factual or historical

‘The Hurled Ashtray’ by Nora Ephron is one of the model narrative essays. This essay has a point to make about the social confusion and contradiction created by feminist movement. Feminist movement has brought confusion in family life. The harmony and reconciliation of family life has been broken because of feminist movement. This point has been established by telling two stories of Mr Korda and Mr Gary Cooper. Though it is an essay, it has narrator and two stories to tell. But these stories have some sort of historical base which brings the real difference between narrative essay and the pure story.

But even in cases where the story in such an essay is fictional rather than factual, it is used to make a point—the idea is primary.  This distinguishes a narrative essay from a short story in which an idea may be inherent in the work, but where the fictional story as such takes precedence over any idea we may derive from it.  ‘Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” for example consists largely of the story of how Orwell (or a fictional character) shot an elephant.  Although the incident possesses considerable interest as a story, its primary purpose is to advance an idea about imperialism, which is presented explicitly midway through the essay and is referred to again at the end—repetition for thematic emphasis.

2.3 The Essay as Poem: Meditation

Main Idea *   It uses poetic techniques and devices *   Pondering and thinking to find truth but not to establish persuasive point *   Inconsistency of mind *   Jump from one topic to another without logical point *   Use of symbols and images *   It usually takes its form from the way thought flows in the mind of the writer *   They are loose in structure and informal in tone

Meditative essays use poetic techniques and devices. Like a poem, it is a meditation over some particular object or idea which is overheard by the readers. Basic quality of essay is to persuade. Essayists project their persona in their essays pondering, thinking, concentrating and talking with the self. Basically the objective of such thinking and pondering is not to establish point or persuade the readers up on that point. Rather the objective is to find the truth about the self and the condition he is pushed into. The essayist does not have the possession of the truth; rather he is in search of that. Inconsistency of mind, jump from one topic to another point, use of paradox, use of  symbols and images etc. are key features of meditative essay.

Writers of meditative essays seem less interested in advancing argument than in exploring them.  They prefer thinking around ideas rather than thinking through them.  Rather than take readers on a clearly marked journey from point A through point B to point C, they often invite readers to accompany them on an excursion into thought.  This is not to suggest that a speculative essay makes no point.  In fact, it may make multiple points.  But it does not have a single-clear-cut thesis as narrative and expository essays often do.

First of all meditative essay has contains inconsistency of the mind of its persona. It refers to uncertainty and contradiction of mind. The persona of meditative essay is put in such a difficult condition that his mind remains inconsistent about what to do and not to do, what to think and not to think. The persona’s mind jumps from one topic to another topic without logical relationships.

For example, in the essay ‘Spring (April 1941)’ by E.B. White, the speaker is in such a condition that his mind jumps from hog to superman to little woman to lamb to snakes. There is jump from one point to another. In the same way, the use of paradox is another feature of meditative essay. As a persona is in conflict and contradictions, he falls in a paradoxical condition. Paradox of mind is presented through the technique of paradox which means putting opposites together. For example the very first fragmented single sentence paragraph of Spring puts together spring time and intoxication together. In fact, spring time is the time of merry making, rejoicing and recreating but such spring time is paradoxically full of intoxication or worries or tensions.

Finally use of symbols and images is also very strong in meditative essay. In a persuasive essay, some objects and atmosphere stand analogically to support persuasive point and convince the readers upon that point. But such objects and situations in meditative essay stands as symbols and images making references or providing implication to certain truth. They carry metaphorical meaning going beyond them.

2.4 The Essay as Play: Dialogue

Main Idea *   Dramatic essay use elements like setting, plot, character, dialogue, actions etc. *   Its plot has some sort of realistic and historical background. *   The essayist establishes his point through characters, plot, dialogue, and action. *   In such dramatic essays, the persuasive point is implied through the characters’ voice

Essay having the dramatic elements like setting, plot, character, dialogue, actions etc. is called dramatic essay. Every essayist has persuasive point to establish. For establishing such point, essayist employs characters, plot, dialogue, and action. In such dramatic essays, the persuasive point is indirect and implied. It is basically implied through the similarity in the voice of characters. Such dramatic essay presents characters having conversation on specific condition on particular place and time. The plot of dramatic essay has some sort of realistic and historical background.

For example, ‘Our Graves in Gallipoli’ by E.M. Foster is perfect example of dramatic essay. In this essay the writer has presented two graves on the hill of AchiBaba having conversation about war. Though it is dramatic in its setting, it has persuasive point of essayist carried by common voice of two graves. It is ‘war is destructive’. War is fought only for power and position which is beneficial only to rulers but not to common people and soldiers. It has the persuasive point of fraternity, equality and internationalism.