Sedaris, at times, has an extremely humorous, yet sadistic sense of humor, which especially shows in his essay, “get your ya-ya’s out!” Rather than looking at his life and his family members with compassion, empathy, or any other form of sensitivity, he uses humor to shadow what others might consider painful experiences in his life. Sedaris’s mother and grandmother, Ya Ya, both appear to be insensitive in this story, which helps me understand why Sedaris is capable of detaching himself from personal events and creating humorous situations of what I would consider troubling life events. His writing is entertaining and somewhat comical, yet I wonder if his rendition of events might be his way of dealing with situations he is incapable of dealing …show more content…
I have a more serious and responsible outlook on life that is sometimes difficult to escape. Sedaris’s story about Ya-Ya reminded me of my grandparents on my father’s side. Papa was a Pentecostal minister and my grandmother, Babaw, was as involved in the church as much as Papa was. They attended church on Wednesday evenings, Saturday evenings, Sunday mornings and Sunday evenings. When they weren’t attending church, they were sitting at home reading the Bible. In an effort to get out of the house and have some type of social life, I quite often attended church with them. The Pentecostals believe a woman should not cut her hair, wear shorts or slacks or adorn herself in any way, which means no jewelry or makeup. I recall Babaw saying, “Barbara, you should be ashamed of yourself wearing those shorts.” Keep in mind, I was a twelve year old tomboy anxious to play outside, running, climbing trees and just having fun in the sun and dirt. I also recall hearing Babaw say, “Barbara, you should be ashamed of yourself, letting your mother cut your hair.” As if I really had a choice. Then one day I walked into my grandmother’s house and saw my Aunt Tressie trimming the dead ends off Babaw’s hair. Wait a minute I thought. She’s cutting Babaw’s hair. Even though I was young, I wasn’t stupid. Does the Bible say it’s ok to trim but not cut? Isn’t it the same thing? All …show more content…
I recall one time in particular when I was ten years old. It was a beautiful, warm summer day and my brother, sister’s and I were playing in the yard while Daddy was mowing the lawn. He, like Sedaris’s father, insisted that everything be picked up out of the yard before mowing. He warned us of the horrible accidents that could occur if the mower blade slung a piece of metal or wood from beneath its deck, such as putting someone’s eye out or impaling them in some other way. He constantly reminded us to keep our feet away from the lawnmower for fear of having our toes cut off. This particular day, Daddy suddenly stopped the lawnmower, sat down on the picnic bench, and called all of us kids over to him. He sat there white faced and trembling while pointing to his shoe. The tip of his shoe was completely gone. He was afraid to remove the shoe for fear his toes would no longer be there. My brother, sisters and I stood there with mouths agape, wondering what would happen next. Daddy untied his shoe and slowly pulled his foot out of the shoe. We watched in fearful anticipation. He set the heel of his foot on the ground and waited for what seemed like forever, as we held our breaths, before he finally attempted to expose the damage the lawnmower had created. He removed his sock, wiggled his toes, and gave us all a good talking to because this could have
In the story “The scarlet Ibis” A kid and his little brother,Doodle could walk,but not run but for his brother who was perfectly fine, had pushed him to walk,run,swim,and to do things like an ordinary child. Because his little brother who couldn’t do any of those things, he tried to help his brother because he didn’t like having a brother who couldn’t walk,so he forced his brother to try and to do things that he has never,done or never did.Doodle was not excited that he couldn’t walk because he wasn’t trying hard enough and died all because of his brother.
where the author wants to become proficient in speaking French. He studies language instructions only to end up being embarrassed by the teacher. This results to him being more culturally confused. David Sedaris finds humor in situations that are humiliating.
In David Sedaris’s story, “A Plague of Tics”, he effectively demonstrates vivid imagery by describing how “if he mashed the right amount of force, a blow to the nose can be positively narcotic. Touching objects satisfied a mental itch, but the task involved a great deal of movement; run upstairs, cross the room, remove a shoe” (365). His use of imagery through words such as “mashed” and “blow to the nose”, appealing to the sense of touch, paint a clear picture in the reader’s mind of the amount of force he uses in order to satisfy a mental itch. The imagery illustrates to the reader how much force is used instead of directly saying it in the text, allowing the reader to stay involved in interpreting the story. Also, Sedaris writes about his
Finally, within the syntax of the novel, Sedaris has interlocked various arguments together with the choice of his words. He skillfully crafts a very sarcastic and humorous piece through applying an argument that is intermingled with generalizations. Thus, it means that the syntax is direct and declarative. For instance, the author states that the teacher is exhausting him with her foolishness and is rewarding her efforts with barely anything but pain. However, the syntax that the author used in some parts of the essay can be said to be confusing because he is fond of changing the topics or employing a different approach of transition in order to make his point of view clear to the readers. This is evident because at some point of the story, he would insert the earlier events or apply metaphors to describe a given occurrence.
Mom’s words and doctor’s advice did not become a way to obstruct the narrator and his pride. Paying no attention to Mom and the doctor’s warning, the narrator took his crippled brother out and trained him anyways regardless of Doodle’s physical restraints, because he is embarrassed. “When Doodle was five years old, I was embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn’t walk, so I set out to teach him (Hurst 204).” Even worse, the narrator knew it was his pride that made him to force Doodle into cruel training, “I did it for myself; that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all their voices, and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother (Hurst 206).” In addition, due to his embarrassment, the
An example of the cycle followed by her father, his father, and his father before him is told when Blunt recalls a major blizzard in December 1964 that trapped the family and some neighbors in their small homestead. She unemotionally describes how her father simply proceeded to go through the motions of keeping the pipes from freezing, calmly accepting the fact that he could do nothing as the storm progressed and he could not prevent loss of a of their livestock. Or how when he first ventured out to check on the animals in their nearby barn and nearly lost his way back in whiteout conditions. Later, when the storm passed, she told of playing amongst the frozen corpses of the cattle, jumping from ribcage to ribcage, daring her older brother and sister to cut off pieces of the animals, all with the calm acceptance that this was so normal, nothing strange about it.
The essay I choose to respond to is "I Stayed to Fight" by Mona Eltahawy. I picked this essay because I still remember very vividly what I was doing and my exact location when I saw the towers burning for the first time. I was in the fourth grade walking down the hall on my way to the rest room, I peered into an empty classroom because I noticed that a huge fire was on the screen. I figured it was just some building and recall how big and tall I thought they were. When my siblings and I walked in the door that day after school it was already on our living room television. My mother then explained to us what the importance of those buildings and how they had caught on fire. I couldn 't believe it when she had told us airplanes had caused the explosions and giant flames, I knew it wasn 't an accident at that point.
In the essay “Letting Go” by David Sedaris, he writes about his experiences with smoking. Throughout the essay Sedaris expresses his views and experiences with smoking. Sedaris grew up in the 1960’s and 70’s when smoking was a common thing to do, so much so that grade school students in his native North Carolina, would have field trips to tobacco factories where they were given packs of cigarettes to give to their parents. Sedaris describes views about smoking that changed throughout his life-time. At one stage in his life he was against smoking, and was even bothered by the smell of cigarettes. Then Sedaris himself, in a different stage of his life became a smoker. Smoking caused Sedaris’s mother to gain some health problems due to her smoking
Within his short story, Sedaris gives us many examples of the shame he felt because of his sexuality. One example of the shame he felt would be on page 84. He states that if he would have won a contest that gave away cash as a prize, he would have visited a psychiatrist who could help cure him of his homosexual thoughts. He stated that he would resort to "electroshock, brain surgery, hypnotism- I was willing to try anything" (Sedaris, 84). This example shows the shame Sedaris felt for being gay. He stated he would have done ANYTHING to help cure him of his homosexual thoughts.
“In response he expected us to play the part of an enthusiastic family, but we were unwilling to resume our old roles” (Sedaris 5). In life, unreliable people surround us. These people often break promises, bringing disappointment in one’s life. Sometimes the unreliable person may not realize the disappointment the broken promises bring to others. Like in the quote from “The Ship Shape” by David Sedaris, the father expected the family to be excited about the promises, but instead they were disappointed because they had been let down numerous times. Being continuously disappointed by a person can also lead to future problems such as not trusting the person, which eventually jeopardizes the relationship. This situation was true for both Sedaris and me. In both situations, people to whom we were close to made promises, but never delivered.
"Out, Out--" by Robert Frost is a poem about a young boy who dies as a result of cutting his hand using a saw. In order to give the reader a clear picture of this bizarre scenario, Frost utilizes imagery, personification, blank verse, and variation in sentence length to display various feelings and perceptions throughout the poem. Frost also makes a reference to Macbeth's speech in the play by Shakespear called Macbeth which is somewhat parallel to the occurrences in "Out, Out-."
An even more dramatic illustration of dissociation (without, however, repression) is depicted in Donald Wyman's horrifying experience. In the summer of 1993, while working in a remote Pennsylvania area clearing timber, Wyman suffered a terrible accident. A huge tree fell on him, pinning his left leg. He knew he would die before anybody found him if he did not take matters into his own hands. So he made a tourniquet from a rawhide bootlace and used his chainsaw wrench to tighten it. He then went about methodically cutting off his left leg with his pocket knife.
Humor is more than just amusing entertainment to pass the time. Though jokes and witty banter can be shallow, humor can go deeper than surface level to convey messages to audiences who would otherwise be close-minded about certain ideas. Humor is a great tool to get audiences to change the way they think, feel, and act. In “Saying Goodbye to Yang,” Alexander Weinstein uses humor to criticize some of society’s faults such as the way it has become heavily reliant on technology, racially insensitive, and judgmental.
Analysis of Leroi Jones' A Poem Some People Will Have To Understand There is an implied threat in "A Poem Some People Will Have To Understand" by Leroi Jones. Ostensibly, there is no intimidation. The poem is confessional, even reflective; the theme is one of mutability and change. However, there is something frightening and ominous in Jones1 vision, which he creates through attention to word choice and structure. Jones' warning is immediately evident in the title through his manipulation of words.
I was 13. It was spring, the barren time in March when you cannot be sure if it is really warmer, but you are so desperate for change that you tell yourself the mud at the edge of the sidewalk is different than winter mud and you are sure that the smell of wet soil has suddenly a bit of the scent of summer rains, of grass and drowned earthworms. And it has, because it is spring and inside the ground something is stirring. I was wearing a yellow linen dress which my mother had picked out and which I therefore disliked although I knew it flattered me. My shoes were white and I was concentrating on keeping them out of the mud. My father and I were going to mass--my mother did not go; she was Protestant. My father put his hand on top of my hair, his palm on my head, and I could feel the bone of my skull and my skin and his hot palm, so dry and strong. When I was a little girl, he did that often, and called me 'Muscles.' He had not called me Muscles or put his hand on my head for a long time. I could not help arching my back a little, I wanted to push against his hand like a cat but the instinct that comes with being 13, the half-understood caution that makes a girl timid, or wild, the shyness told me to just walk. I wanted to feel the rough edge of the pocket of his coat against my cheek, but I was too tall. I wanted to be seven again, and safe. But I still wanted to push against his hand and put my hand in his pocket and steal the leather palmed glove, that secret animal.