Non-Traditional Rhetorical Analysis of "Red Shoes"

Dear Susan Griffin,

Your essay "Red Shoes" was fascinating! The way you wrote it very much directed toward women, in my point of view, was what attracted me to it the most, being a woman and all. Your essay really helped me to delve deeper into the issue of privacy, publicity, and the female world. The way you first started talking about the red shoes that you wore as a little girl helped me, along with many others I am sure, relate to you and your essay right off the bat.

I found your style of writing very interesting. The way you split up your essay into two different fonts, roman and italic, and two different stories, was great. After reading the first page or two I ended up getting the hang of the style that you chose to write in. At the end of the essay, it all came together very nicely.

I believe that the italicized sections of your essay were not necessarily needed to make the essay work. You could have written it with only the roman sections and still gotten something out of it. Although, I do believe that it is much more interesting and creative the way you did add in the italicized sections. This aspect of your essay also helped me feel closer to you, because those sections were much more personal to you being stories of your childhood with your grandparents. This helped me as a reader and audience to understand a little bit more about you as an author, and just as a human being. Your choice in doing so is what made all the difference, to me, in this essay.

You choosing the title of "Red Shoes", which is a title of a fairy tale many people may have read already before reading your essay, was also very interesting to me. I have not read the fairy tale, but I do believe that if I have, it would have helped me a lot more to understand your essay better. Right from the beginning some people were able to relate to you and your essay in some way, just by reading the title. I think that is a very interesting way to grab the audiences’ attention.

I feel you posing the question about why a novel can enter a private sphere where the essay cannot, was based on confusion. It made me feel that you as a writer writing an essay, felt some sort of exclusion. It gave me the vibe that you are affected by the exclusion of essays to novels.

Overall, I think you did a great job portraying what you needed to portray in your essay. It was informative, yet creative and personal all at the same time. Informative in the sense that you let the audience think deeper about the issue of this essay. Creative in the sense that you decided to break up the essay with roman and italic fonts, both with different stories, but winding up together in the end and creative with your use of title. Personal in the sense that you put in some of your own personal experiences as a woman, and let us into your world.