Confession by Linh Dinh

The idea of human models in society is usually associated with ideas of beauty and perfection. Models today have no physical blemishes or flaws. People endeavor the media’s portrayal of this sublimity. By losing weight or getting involved in the latest fashion trends, society strives to achieve the same glorification that these models receive. However, beauty has been a tool society has used to forget about the true nature of humans. In “Confession”, Linh Dinh attempts to illustrate society’s chase after beauty is actually society attempting to ignore the imperfections of being human.

Linh Dinh focuses heavily on society’s impressions of deformity discreetly. He does this through his language usage. Dinh writes, “the jagged gaps of their stiff smiles”(5). The media portrays a beautiful smile as lips turned upward with shining white teeth. Dinh creates the opposite on his doll. The word “jagged” facilitates in bringing out a beastly image. This jagged smile reminds the audience of a wild animal, with sharp gnarly teeth. In perspective to the aim of “Confession”, this relation to an animal symbolizes the imperfections of humans to a new extent. The physical defects that are obvious through the first read now become a discreet way of conveying that humans are not as sophisticated as they think, but rather unrefined and uncivilized.

Dinh continues on to use the word “stiff”(5) to describe the smile he is creating on the model. The word stiff illustrates to the audience the sense of a forced smile. In relation to society running away from their imperfections, Dinh conveyed how this “stiff” smile indicates people trying to hide behind their smile like a mask, to conceal their inner problems. In the next line, Dinh writes: “I pamper each pimple, hump, massage each incrustation”(6). The word “pamper” sticks out in this sentence. The