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Ideal Beauty In Catherine Pigott's Chicken-Hips

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Every individual cares about how they appear to others; their shape and in this informal, narrative essay titled Chicken-Hips, Canadian journalist and producer Catherine Pigott tells her story on her trip to Gambia and her body appearance. In this compelling essay the thesis is implicit and the implied thesis is about how women are judged differently on their appearance in different parts of the world, as various cultures and individuals have a different perception on what ideal beauty is. In this essay Pigott writes about her trip to Africa specifically Gambia and how upon arriving there she was judged to be too slim for a woman. She goes on to write about how she would be judged differently back home by mentioning “in my county we deny ourselves …show more content…

One example of an effective use of diction is in the sentence “my freedom had been temporary” (Pigott 81). This sentence has an effect of bring out sympathy from the readers as she is trying to say that in her time in Gambia she was judged but in a way that let her be free because she could consume food and wear what she wanted to whereas back home she is more restricted as she doesn’t has as much freedom in what she eats and wears because its frowned upon (will be harshly judged). Furthermore, another example of effective use of diction is imagery in the sentence “women swivelled their broad hips and used their hands to emphasize the roundness of their bodies” (Pigott 80). This helps a reader visualize how beauty in Africa (Gambia) looks like. It also has the effect of creating joy amongst the readers as it is supposed to be a cheerful sentence because they are celebrating and this indirectly show the reader the women are free and enjoying their bodies. Moreover, a third example of impressive use of diction is a metaphor in the sentence “they nicknamed me chicken-hips” (Pigott 79). In this sentence they are comparing Pigott to a chicken because she has no mass on her hips. The significance in this sentence is the word chicken hips, this word is used to show the reader that in a woman in Africa who is slim would be called chicken hips while in a modern location they would be considered

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