The Essay “Naked” by China Forbes

Use of metaphor is one of the techniques that are used by many authors of literature. This technique makes an essay very interesting and makes a reader think deep rather than just reading plain points. A reader is encouraged by the use of metaphors, imagery and other techniques to continue reading an essay so as to find out more ideas that are contained in the essay. If an essay is written using pain language, it becomes very easy for a reader to predict what is contained in the next paragraphs and thus stop reading even before reading the whole essay. To make sure that readers continue to read essays to the end, authors must use the techniques that have been mentioned above. This piece of work talks about ‘Naked’, which has been used figuratively by China Forbes in her book with the title, ‘Naked’.

I think that being naked is something that any sane person would not like to do in front of people. No sane person would like to portray a nude body for people to see. However, when it is used in an essay, I usually give it a keen interest because I know it is usually used figuratively. I think nakedness means innocence. A child is usually born with clothes. As a child grows up, the child does not know that there is anything wrong in being naked. A young child cannot be shy of being naked because the child is innocent and does not have anything to hide. If all children can know that human private parts should not be portrayed for the public to see, no child can walk naked in front of people. I once lived in one of the African countries where there was a sculpture of a nude young boy in front of a high court. I interpreted it to mean that the law is innocent just as the nude young boy represented by the sculpture. The law is innocent and does not know the position, race, religion or belief of an individual in the society. This is why I associate nakedness with innocence.

The essay by China Forbes is about how the writer uses the word naked to describe different feelings. The writer uses nakedness as a metaphor to describe her emotional feelings towards her lover. It means that she became emotionally naked after her boyfriend suggested that they should break up their relationship. The writer was physically naked when she was born. She describes that she was born naked and handed over to her mother. This implies that the writer was born in a hospital where she was naked and the hospital attendant (nurse) handed her to the mother. It is obvious that no child is born with clothes but the writer wanted to create a certain picture in readers’ minds. Forbes uses the word naked to illustrate that nothing is being hidden from people. Her main message is that people should always try to be themselves. A real person is a naked one. This implies that clothes may make someone look fat or slim depending on the type of clothes. A person may change the physical appearance by putting on different clothes at different times. A real person is best known when the person is naked. This is why Forbes is using nakedness to show that people should not pretend but be who they actually are.

China Forbes has creatively used nakedness as a metaphor in her essay. He likens herself to a baby that was born naked and did not know anything concerning nakedness. This simply means that China Forbes is trying to tell readers that she was true to herself and there was nothing to hide. This is a way of creating mental picture in readers’ minds and making the story interesting. The reader is made eager and therefore continues to read so as to find more from the essay. The writer has made good use of chronological order to describe to writers what happen at each and every event. For example, China Forbes describes that she was disturbed and wanted to know more about the school where her sister was going every morning and was only coming back in the evening with new things. One morning when her sister was going to school, she started to follow her immediately she disappeared between the leaves. The writer chronologically describes how she started following the sister until they reached where the bus was to pick her sister. On reaching the bus stop, the sister turned around and saw her standing naked. Chronological order is a technique that helps a reader to follow the sequence of events in an essay.

Another writing technique that China Forbes has used in her essay is known as vivid description. The writer vividly describes how the house they lived in looked. For example, she describes that they had a long house with a flat roof and how it meandered down a sloping hill. Vivid description also helps a reader to visualize what a writer is talking about. One can visualize the image of the house being described by the writer because the description is systematic and clear. This technique is also wisely used by the writer to introduce outside reference in her essay. For example, at the beginning of the essay, the writer includes an outside reference by stating that she became Marilyn Monroe until she became tired of it. An outside reference can be used in an essay to make the readers’ minds deviate a little bit from one scene to another so as to eliminate boredom and thus making the story interesting.

Another writing technique that China Forbes has successfully used in the essay is dialogue. The way in which the writer had a dialogue with her boyfriend over the phone when the boyfriend was informing her that they had to break up the relationship gives a reader a different scene. Dialogue in an essay reduces the boredom created by narration. In addition, the writer uses word pictures as repletion words to pass her ideas. For example, repletion is evident when the writer went back to college and one of the room-mates was surprised to see a painting of a nude person. It shows how different people have different perceptions of nakedness.

In conclusion, for China Forbes, nakedness means being a true person without pretending. It means being truly in love and being honest. She has managed to use nakedness figuratively to make the essay very interesting but at the same time making it a bit difficult to understand. One has to use analytical skills in order to understand what the writer is taking about. I think nakedness means being innocent just as a small child who is innocent and does not know that being naked is wrong.