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Amory Jones

Emilee Durand

Section 0404

Final

The Rusty lining of Big Dreamers

In the New York Times: campus life article, Youll Never Be Famous-And Thats Ok

(published September 4, 2017) by Emily Esfahani Smith, she discusses what she has found on

what it means to have a meaningful life. Emily Esfahani Smith is a journalist, author, and an

editor at Stanford University. She also has a master in Applied Positive Psychology (Smith,

Para.3). By publishing this at the beginning of the new school year she wants to make sure the

reader come into school with realistic ideas of success so students can plan their school year

accordingly. September 4th was also the day before her paperback version of her book goes to

stores so she was also trying to promote and spark interest in her book. This piece is specifically

about the importance of realizing that you do not need to become famous to be considered

successful. She effectively argues that ones fulfillment in life can be found within one by her

structure, research, and word choice.

Smith effectively supports her argument through the way she structures the article. In the

beginning of the article, Smith discusses how college students too often think they need to

change the world in extreme ways which are a misconception based off what society now

considers a meaningful life (Smith, Para.1). By opening with this she is establishing the
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importance of her article and how this idea of success is affecting millennials. From there Smith

talks about her 5 years of research, interviews, surveys, and readings to come to her conclusions

that a meaningful life is often not an extraordinary one but, They are the ordinary ones lived

with dignity. (Smith, Para.3). From there, Smith discusses a novel which confirms her research

through someone elses work. Following that she talks about how the reader needs to find

happiness within helping those around us and that is the true source of having a fulfilled life. By

Smith structuring the article this way, she has made a full circle which can help the reader fully

understand her argument.

Smiths use of descriptive words effectively makes the reader an emotional connection

with the article. Throughout the article, Smith uses words such as dignity, idealistic,

purpose, ambition, wildly, and desperately. By using these words repetitively

throughout the article, she really gets the idea of having big dreams and aspirations normal but

college students also need to remember to be realistic with their lives. Smith also achieves this

through her title. The title of the article is Youll Never Be Famous-And Thats Ok. By her

making this the title of the article Smith is stating her argument right from the beginning which

could make the reader feel either disappointed with their realization or regret with their decisions

since they have probably made all their big life decisions around their dream of becoming

famous. By Smith adding - And Thats Ok it could also give the reader relief by either

eliminating the stress they felt by thinking they must become famous or by reassuring them on

not everybody needs to become famous.

Although Smiths use of Middlemarch was effective within a connective aspect it also

diminishes her persuasiveness through her lengthy summary. When Smith used to the novel,

Middlemarch it helped her argument but also made it a little difficult for the reader to fully
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understand its significance. Majority of the article was spent by Smith summarizing

Middlemarch by George Eliot. "Middlemarch" is a 19th Century novel with over 700 pages.

Most readers probably have not read the novel or heard of the author which would make it hard

for them to connect to it. Smith starts with describing the main characters aspirations for life, the

reader can see that the characters have similar ideas of what they want in life as well as ideas of

success (Smith, Para.4). Other than hearing about the main characters aspirations the summary

goes on a rant about what happens to the main characters and how their lives come to end. This

part of the essay is drawn out and messy which hinders the persuasiveness of the essay and

makes the summary less effective.

Smiths word choice and title really help the reader see and understand her claim. From

Smith telling the reader from the beginning the amount of research, she has put into this article

and overall her work reassures that she knows the topic at hand and that it was not just her

opinion on the topic. Smiths use of Middlemarch was both effective and ineffective. When

Smith explains the characters dreams one can understand how they are like one's possible dreams

but the way Smith words the summary of the novel makes it hard to keep the two characters

stories straight which makes the reader concentrate on figuring out the storyline instead of what

the summary could have possibly brought to the article. Overall, in Youll Never Be Famous-

And Thats Ok by Emily Esfahani Smith, she was able to effectively argue the importance of

realizing that you do not need to become famous to be considered successful through using the

timing of the article, research, and word choice.

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Work Cited

Esfahani Smith, Emily. Youll Never Be Famous-And Thats Ok. New York Times, 04 Sept.

2017.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/04/opinion/middlemarch-college-

fame.html?mwrs=Email. Accessed 20 Sept 2017.

Esfahani Smith, Emily. About. http://emilyesfahanismith.com/about/. Accessed 21 Sept

2017.