"Long Distance" by Victor LaValle

Many people today do not feel comfortable with themselves; either they think they are too skinny, too fat, too short, too tall, etc. There are those who are so uncomfortable that they hide behind technology, such as fake profiles and in this case phone sex. LaValle is an author of a collection of stories and was the winner of the 2010 Guggenheim Award and assistant professor at Columbia University's School of the Arts. He was asked to write about his life after losing a lot of weight, thus composing the essay Long Distance. Although LaValle was supposed to write about his life after losing weight, much of the essay was about his life before losing the weight. Being overweight and attending college, LaValle did not attract many girls leading to him being less sexually active, so he turned to phone sex. He ended up chatting with a fifty year old women on a regular basis, until she could not talk to him anymore. This was very much like a break up. After two years he decided to lose his weight, since he stopped the phone sex. In the end, LaValle learns that even with his extra skin (caused by losing the weight), that there are girls out there who do not care and like him for who he was; allowing him to make progress in being comfortable with himself. Reaching out to those who are not comfortable in their skin, LaValle tried to communicate to his readers that if they are not comfortable themselves, do not mope around; get up and do something to fix it. Using descriptive vocabulary and emotion, LaValle achieved his purpose of writing his essay.Vocabulary such as besieged, lewd, and euphemisms creates a better understanding in the essay.Along with the descriptive vocabulary, LaValle used emotion that allowed the reader to connect to the author on a personal level. After reading and analyzing this essay, LaValle did achieve his purpose. Showing how miserable LaValle was when he was not comfortable with himself, then doing something about it (losing weight) allowing him to be a happy, really gets his purpose across to his readers.

Striving to being comfortable in your own skin/body

http://www.miscfinds4u.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/bodies.jpg

Author information from: The Best American Essays: 2011 Edition