Rhetorical Analysis of Chris Linnares
“Healthy Body, Hot Life: When we don’t have a happy ending…”

Introduction
On August 30, 2012 Chris Linnares published a memoir in The Forum under the title, “Healthy Body, Hot Life: When we don’t have a happy ending…” The author of this article, Chris Linnares, is a Brazilian native who moved to Fargo North Dakota after marrying her native Fargo husband. Linnares writes about her wedding day, a day she has dreamt of since she was a small girl, she had imagined a perfect ceremony and a beautiful flowing reception, and the one perfect moment between her and her newly wed husband; that ultimately doesn’t happen the way she had always pictured it. When it comes time to cut the cake, the Brazilian tradition is to take a magical picture of the “I-finally-made-it bride and the I-can’t-believe-I-committed groom” (Linnares 2), but the American tradition differs slightly. Her husband “grabs a piece and starts smashing it into my face like a crazy 4-year-old boy” (Linnares 2).
Linnares addresses newly wed issues along with cultural difference issues. Linnares explains these difficulties and how to work through them, “there are a lot of unsolved problems in our everyday life, there are a lot of things we still don’t agree with each other on” and later states that it is not worth the time and effort to try and convince one another to agree (Linnares 2).

Genre
Linnares article, “Healthy Body, Hot Life: When we don’t have a happy ending…” is classified as a memoir; there are many different characteristics of a memoir. A well-written memoir will include the following; a focus on the relationship between the writer and particular person, place, or thing, it will focus on a specific time period, a memoir will always remain in first person, and above all else, when a memoir is read the reader should learn something about life by reading about a different life or experience.
Linnares’ memoir includes all of these characteristics; she focuses on her wedding day, but specifically on the part of the evening where her and her husband cut the cake. When the reader is finished with this memoir, one thing they learn is that even when something is planned down to the smallest detail, you can’t control everything and you can’t control what happens in a single moment.
Chris Linnares writes a very effective memoir in “Healthy Body, Hot Life: When we don’t have a happy ending…” The reader is able to feel the emotion in her writing, and in the end learns something about relationships and how things don’t always go as planned.

Audience Chris Linnares published “Healthy Body, Hot Life: When we don’t have a happy ending…” in The Forum on August 30, 2012. The Forum is a local newspaper for the Fargo-Moorhead area, traditionally printed on paper and delivered to subscriber’s homes, as well as being available in multiple different convenience stores. The newspaper’s traditional form generally targets the middle-aged to older members of the Fargo-Moorhead area, as well as the well-educated cultured citizens. The Forum is also available online at INFORUM.com, and can be found through popular social networking sites, like Facebook.
Even with these new online advancements, The Forum still primarily targets the middle-aged to older citizens of the Fargo-Moorhead area. While The Forum’s primary audience tends to be older couples, Linnares’ intended audience is newlyweds, engaged couples, and interracial couples. Linnares’ article was published in Fargo Moorhead’s The Forum but her primarily audience is most likely to read her articles online at INFORUM.com by going through Chris Linnares’ personal website.

Social Context
In the year 2012 there were a total of 24, 346 new marriages, 10 percent of those marriages were interracial, and 18 percent of all heterosexual relationships are interracial (Jayson). Linnares is a Brazilian native who married a Caucasian man from North Dakota, through her memoir she