Critical Essay on Non-Fiction Narrative: Oprah

Introduction

Oprah is a biographical book by Kitty Kelley about the media mogul, Oprah Winfrey. The author herself has chronicled the lives of some of the most successful people in America, and her book takes somewhat of a critical tone on Oprah's previous history. The book talks about Oprah's closest family members, her friends, her business associates as well as love affairs. The book reveals some controversial facts about Oprah, and as a result, it did not receive Oprah's approval. However, the book isn't about tarnishing the image of Oprah; it is about depicting Oprah as a human being that went through the struggles of ordinary people. She made mistakes normal people did and made corrections where necessary. The narrative makes it clear that Oprah is a great figure both in the 20th century and 21st century. All its trying to do is separate truth from hype because even the greatest of data, need to be placed under a microscope. Kelley explores both the positive and negative aspects of Oprah's life, unlike other biographies which only explore the positive issues. The book does manage to accomplish that by giving the reader a look on both sides of Oprah Winfrey. The book starts at off in 1984 when Oprah was working with WLS-TV as a host for a daytime television talk show. Some of the narratives that stood out for me was the drama that surrounded Oprah's revelation about her childhood sexual abuse. According to the book by Kelley, Oprah's family denied the allegations terming them as an attempt from Oprah to gain publicity for her movie role (11).

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I liked the book because it gives a personal account of one of the most exceptional women that currently exists in America. Oprah is such a great figure that many people including me look up to her. I found the revelations about her history and her personality very encouraging because they make her less of a god and more of a human figure. I don't see any of the revelations such as her hate for Tennessee State University repulsing (Kelley 44). It just shows that she was once a teenager with some narrow worldview. However, the central part of the novel that got my attention was where her classmate describes Oprah's college life. To a great length, I almost felt like she was describing my college life. According to Wright, Oprah was detached from the rest of the students (Kelley 44). She lived off campus and spent most of her time at a nearby University called Fisk. Oprah was not get asked to join a sorority. She was forced to drop out because of missing three credit hours. She came back sometime later to complete her studies, and she ended up graduating at the age of 33. Her decision to hold off college is something that I can relate to because I also had to hold off college for sometime before I decided to enrol. Looking at how her life turned out, this book is more of inspiration because it shows that with dedication and patience a person can almost achieve anything.

Other than those, other positive thoughts crossed my mind. For example, Oprah's classmates describe her as an arrogant person who is bossy. That is something that could have significantly contributed to her becoming a successful entrepreneur. Oprah herself believed in her potential and her impending succsess from a very young age. During a trip with her father to Los Angeles, she toured the Hollywood walk of fame, and after running her hands down the stars on the street, she said, "One day, I'm going to put my star among these stars," (Kelley 36). That quote shows that Oprah believed in herself and her potential earlier on in life. Some of the details that the book reveals about Oprah are disparaging. For instance, there is her family relationship which according to the author, it's not as tight as it seems. There is also her concealment of the truth about her child where she gave the wrong information. In her pageant application, the beauty queen indicated that she has never conceived. The negative thought is that when asked about why she wanted to participate in the pageant, Oprah said that she wanted to inspire black girls to be confident about their body. Her exact words were, "I would like to instil some sense of individual pride within our people," (Kelley 47). Her course was a noble one but her means of achieving it was wrong. That shows that Oprah was willing to do whatever she could to make sure that she achieves her dreams including breaking the laws. However, one negative thought about the book is that it doesn't do much to tell the narrative with impartiality. To some level, it is always trying to downplay Oprah's achievements even in unnecessary circumstances. In chapter one of the book, while describing Oprah's entry into the daytime talk show, the author says, "introduced all the 233 pounds of herself into the city by marching in her parade,"(8). In that section, the author seems to be trying to draw away the attention of the reader from the talk show that Oprah was going to host but rather towards her weight. Oprah's weight is something that has been out in public for a long time, and Oprah herself has addressed it where she said she wasn't comfortable about it.

Conclusion

Generally, Oprah is an excellent non-fictional novel that feeds the readers' curiosity about one of the most iconic American figures. The novel doesn't exaggerate any aspect of her personality but tries to display information in a truthful nature. The book changed the way I viewed Oprah such that I do not view her as a flawless figure. That is a good thing because it means I can also achieve the same or greater. Besides that, looking at her campus studies, they follow an almost similar path to my studies. I might graduate at the same age that of Oprah. The book shows that when it comes to college graduation, age should not demotivate a person not to pursue their career. A large section of the book describes Oprah's adulthood which is what most readers such as myself are interested in. The road from Oprah's childhood to adulthood is one that is riddled with challenges and some good proportion of good luck that readers are interested in finding out how she managed these challenges and how she utilised the good fortunes. I chose this book because Oprah is one of the famous individuals that dropped out of college and only returned years later to finish her degree. I needed to analyse a book about a person who has had an experience similar to mine. That shows that my case is one among many other instances of people who enrolled in tertiary education at an older age.

Works Cited

Kelley, Kitty. Oprah. New York, NY: Crown Publishers, 2011. PDF.

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