What Makes An Essay An Essay?

I think what makes these three works (Silent Dancing, The Stunt Pilot, and Ali in Havana) essays is that they are all written in first person. They are all written from the author's perspective. Even though it is intended to report each event just as it happened, they are still described from what the author has observed and noted as important. Certain things are highlighted, and others left out. (In "Ali in Havana," Talese included detailed descriptions of the cars that they passed while riding on the bus.) I don't know if this selective writing was done intentionally, but this is a factor that I think makes these works essays. The writer is presenting an event or series of events in such a way that we get a specific mental picture of them, and see them how the writer sees them. (From the "Stunt Pilot": "Rahm made beauty with his whole body; it was pure pattern...The plane moved every way a line can move...the line carved massive and subtle slits in the air like sculptures." Not everyone may look at an air show this way, but Dillard makes it seem obvious that they could be looked at as art.)

A second factor that characterizes these works as essays is that, in each case, the author was there, and experienced the events that happened. They aren't simply relaying a series of facts that they have merely heard of; they witnessed them taking place. This is even more so why the authors would include their perspectives on it. Perhaps there can be essays written on events which the author has never seen first hand, but those are a different kind of essay. This is just a pattern I noticed among all three of the works we read. For example, "Silent Dancing" was a recounting of Judith Ortiz Cofer's childhood. She, of course, was present during the times she describes. "The Stunt Pilot" is a description of Annie Dillard's own encounter with an airshow and flying with the famous pilot himself. In "Ali in Havana," Gay Talese details the awkward social gathering between the leader of Cuba and two celebrated boxers. He obtained this information by personally witnessing and recording it. He didn't ask someone about it or watch a documentary on it; he was there.

I think to even be an essay, a work should contain the author's view on a subject, whether or not it is an event he or she has witnessed. Indeed, this will inherently happen. I do not think an author could describe an event or speculate on something purely objectively. Subconsciously, he will include or exclude details as he sees fit. It is not necessarily an attempt to "taint" a story or "deceive" an audience. Rather, how can a writer help but record what he sees through his own lense? I would define an essay as a piece of writing promoting the author's view on something, whether consciously or unconsciously done. Sometimes they are used as rhetorical tools to persuade an audience to agree with a certain point of view. Sometimes they are just simply ways to recount an event, and at still other times, they are just tools for speculation or "putting an idea out there." In any case, an essay will contain the viewpoint of the author.