Carnal Acts Nancy Mairs Analysis

In the essays, Carnal Acts, Nancy Mairs, a young writer who deals with MS disease and mental illnesses speaks out about the difficulties of dealing with MS and how her voice as a writer helped her cope with the difficulties of MS. Mairs tells us she sees a very close connection between life and writing, “For me, thinking about literature and thinking about life aren’t separate, or even separable, acts (4)”. The theme of love who you are is distinctly depicted by Mairs in her essays. This theme is very common throughout the book, especially in the essay titled “Carnal Acts” where she clearly states society 's standards for women are too high. Mairs never considered herself beautiful because she never fit the perfect image of a beautiful woman,

“I was never a beautiful women, and for that reason I’ve spent most of my life suffering from the shame of falling short of an unattainable standard” (87). Mairs starts off by telling us she was never a beautiful woman. By describing herself as this, it acts as an attention getter so the readers can become more interested in the reading. By putting emphasis on the topic of society 's standards for woman allows Mairs to go into greater depth with the topic, allowing readers to gain more knowledge and understanding of what the standards are like for a woman. A sullen tone is maintained throughout this chapter as Mairs describes the society 's standards for women leaving the readers a choice on how they feel about these standards. By using logos in her essay’s, Mairs is able to further describe the effects of standards have on women, including herself by stating in her quote, she’s spent most of her life suffering from not meeting the standards set for her. The use of short and long sentences in her essays help the rhythmic flow describe what it’s really feel like to fall short of standards people have set for