David Sedaris Research Paper
David Sedaris
David Sedaris has been compared to some of the greatest American Literature writers of our age, including Mark Twain, Dorothy Parker and James Thurber (Moredock). Not surprisingly, all of the aforementioned authors managed to captivate their audiences with sarcasm, wit, and humor—three characteristics that appear the most in Sedaris’s writing. He has created a career as both an author and recording artist (having broadcast and recorded his works of literature numerous times), finding insight and pointing out the satire of ordinary circumstances in daily life. Most of his articles were autobiographical in nature, and involved the author himself as one of the principle characters in these articles. His 2004 book, Dress Your Family …show more content…
in Corduroy and Denim, is quite typical in this respect. An analysis of a pair of articles in this manuscript, “Us and Them” and “The Girl Next Door”, illustrates the author’s propensity for deriving some of the more humorous aspects of non-traditional American families. Sedaris was born in 1956, and spent part of his formative years living in upstate New York.
His family eventually moved down south to North Carolina in the early 1960’s, which exposed the fledgling author to the bustle of city life. By his own accounts, his tenure in New York was spent in an exceedingly rural location, which contrasted sharply with his new setting in North Carolina. The unconventional wit and humor (Burroughs) that the author displays in his writings more than likely descended, in part, from his unusual career path. In the late 1970’s, Sedaris abandoned his studies at Kent State University to take a series of odd jobs, while hitchhiking about the country. This would prove a highly beneficial experience for the author, who began “writing a diary on placemats in diners” (Moredock). This medium proved the perfect way for Sedaris to refine his humorous narrative style while developing commentary about the mundane events of …show more content…
life. Sedaris attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he began to read selections from his autobiography to people; his initial audiences consisted of patrons from local nightclubs. The author’s popularity eventually enabled him to read excerpts on “the city’s public radio station” (Moredock). Sedaris’ career began in earnest once he relocated to New York City in the early 1990’s. After he was asked to read various articles on National Public Radio (Greer), he began to publish his works as short stories in various publications such as Harper’s and The New Yorker. His work was usually autobiographical, and included both past and contemporary episodes in which his uncanny wit was given prominence. Sedaris’ publishing career included a number of books and audio recordings for which he received a plethora of accolades. He published both Barrel Fever and Naked in the 1990’s, the latter of which was comprised of remembrances and anecdotes about his mother. The primary theme of the book Me Talk Pretty One Day revolved around the difficulties in daily communication with others. In addition to publishing Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Sedaris has also edited a children’s anthology (Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules) and wrote When You Are Engulfed in Flames and Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary. He earned the Thurber Prize for American Humor in 2001. Sedaris recorded excerpts from Dress Your Family in Corduroy for which he was awarded a Grammy nomination, and also received a Grammy Nomination for a live version recorded at Carnegie Hall. Other than Sedaris’ humor, the primary theme that links “Us and Them” to the “Girl Next Door” is the fact that both stories portray families that are at variance with the quintessential American family. This element is quite clear in the former tale, which details the idiosyncrasies of the Tomkey family. From a distance, the Tomkey family may seem like a typical nuclear family—there is a mother and father and children living in a suburban neighborhood with typical jobs and school commitments. However, the primary distinction between this family and the author’s own (and between this family and most other middle class American ones in the 1960’s) is the fact that the former did not possess a television. This serves for a number of hilarious and sarcastic observations from Sedaris that illustrate the fact that the Tomkey family is considered an anomaly and incongruent with average American families. Sedaris also makes this point even more pronounced with his depiction of another neighboring family in “The Girl Next Door”.
Although this tale is called “The Girl Next Door”, the actual nine-year-old girl who lives next to Sedaris in this story is far from the quintessential ‘girl next door’ of conventional clichés. This dictum usually refers to a wholesome, All-American girl riding on her roller skates and picking flowers, while serving as a well-behaved extension of a well-behaved family. Tompkins completely subverts this motif in his story, instead depicting a needy girl whose mother leaves her alone during all hours of the day, and chooses to wake her late at night to take care of trifles. This girl’s family is quite dysfunctional, consisting only of her mother and her prolonged affinity for Sedaris, a 26-year-old adult in this tale. As such, the pair is ideally the opposite of the typical American
family. Yet the significant point regarding this commonality between these two stories is that the clans in each respective story are non-traditional Americans; thus, Sedaris can inject his humor into the story, which often takes the form of sarcasm. For instance, he frequently compares his family to the Tomkey family in “Us and Them” in order to make light of the Tomkey clan’s lack of a television in its household. One can argue that the only true similarity between these two families is the fact that the Tomkey family does not own a television. Yet this is greatly exaggerated in the mind of Sedaris, who depicts himself as a third grader in this tale. When his parents both learn that Mr. Tomkey is a disbeliever in television, Sedaris recollects their verbal exchanges in the following quotation. “That’s exactly how I feel”, my mother said, and then my parents watched the news, and whatever came on after the news” (Sedaris). There is subtle humor that is demonstrated in this passage, centering on the idea that the Tomkey family is somewhat strange for not possessing a television. Although Sedaris’ parents both share the same viewpoint, they continue to watch television shortly after making this claim. The author is making fun of the hypocritical ideas of his parents, as well as the idea that not watching television is unusual and not traditionally American. Sedaris also compares the two clans in “The Girl Next Door” to emphasize the fact that his neighbor’s family is different from your average American family; the similarities between the families are apparent. At this point, Sedaris’ clan simply consists of himself and his mother, while his neighbor’s family consists of a child and her mother; interestingly, the only thing that separates them is a wall. However, beyond the wall contains a world of vastly different values and teachings that each family engages in. Moreover, that difference is a source of repugnance for Sedaris’ mother as well as humor for the author. That difference is alluded to in the following quotation, where Sedaris’ mother begins to deconstruct the problems with the neighboring family, who is only identified as a nine-year-old girl whom Sedaris calls Brandi. His mother states: “‘Let’s see,’ she said. ‘Nine-year-old girl named after an alcoholic beverage. Single mother in a neighborhood the police won’t even go to’” (Sedaris). The humor in this passage is underscored by the fact that the name of the girl coincides with a cocktail (from the mother’s viewpoint, although it merely becomes funnier from Sedaris’ perspective as an author); Brandi’s mother, coincidentally, is a bartender. The humor in this passage is all supplied by the misfortune of this atypical American family, which becomes even more dysfunctional when the habits and lifestyle customs (Brandi’s mother coming home at all odd hours of the evening and encouraging her to beg from Sedaris) of the Sedaris’ mother are pointed out. In comparing the behavior of the two clans in “Us and Them”, Sedaris illustrates how anomalous the Tomkey family is by attributing all of their idiosyncratic behavior to the lack of television. What is hilarious about this is that he even includes behavior that is not directly influenced from television to simple weirdness on the part of that family. The anecdote regarding Halloween emphasizes this point, and serves as the climax of this story. While all the other families in the neighborhood were busy trick-or-treating on Halloween like other American families, the Tomkey clan were absent, preferring to spend the evening enjoying Mrs. Tomkey’s father’s house on a lake. Everyone is entitled to exercise their own free will and judgment, which was the main idea of this scene. However, when the Tomkey clan showed up the next night dressed in Halloween costumes attempting to catch up on the trick-or-treating activity they missed previously, Sedaris finds plenty of humor to discuss. The following quotation illustrates his point of view and provides an example of idiosyncratic this family was attributed, and how their behavior is somehow attributed to their lack of television. “I attributed their behavior to the fact that they didn’t have a TV, but television didn’t teach you everything”. The fact that the author’s third grade incarnation (which is utilized through the first-person narrative) comes to terms that television does not teach everything proves that the odd behavior of the Tomkey clan could not all rightfully relate to their lack of a TV. However, this same revelation on the part of the narrator serves as a moment of humor, as it really asserts the fact that Sedaris is now certain that the Tomkey clan is strange—regardless of whether or not they have a television. However, he still associates their future odd behavior to a lack of televisions. An interesting point of similarity that an observant reader might notice between these two stories is that, while depicting an unusual American family in each tale, Sedaris also illustrates a normal American family. Moreover, he then compares the same aspects of these different family types in order to create sarcastic humor, which emphasizes the idea that the habits of the families are decidedly not that of a typical American family. In “Us and Them”, Sedaris compares the Halloween habits of two families; meanwhile, his story “The Girl Next Door” compares the logic and reasoning of two mothers. The central point of variation with Brandi’s family is the dysfunctional mother. It is her mother’s choice for working odd hours, leaving her young daughter home most of the day and night, and encouraging Brandi to beg from the Sedaris’ family that renders Brandi’s ‘family’ odd. And it is Sedaris’ mother, whom considers herself as an model of propriety; in reality, she’s a little bit too overcritical. This fact establishes a comparison between the two mothers, and the author uses this in order to poke fun at Brandi’s family for being unconventional. After Sedaris tells his overcritical mother that the Brandi’s mother, his mother fails to see his reasoning, pointing out that Brandi’s mother is “cheap” (Sedaris), which is a possible allusion suggesting that both cocktails and Brandi are cheap. Sedaris replies, “I’m sorry…But aren’t I talking to someone who named her daughter Tiffany?” (Sedaris). With this quotation, the author compares the naming propensity of each mother. The sarcasm in this situation comes to light that, while Brandi is a relatively inexpensive cocktail, Tiffany is an allusion to a very expensive jewelry chain in New York. This comparison then, ultimately proves that Sedaris’ mother is the more of an ‘upper-class’ type, and Sedaris reinforces the point that the ‘cheap’ mother runs a dysfunctional family. The analysis of “Us and Them” and “The Girl Next Door” proves that the similarities between the two stories is the author’s inclusion of an archetypal American family at odds with a family with quintessential teachings of an American family. The way he accomplishes his irony and sarcasm is by drawing subtle comparisons between the two families via allusions and symbolism. Subsequently, David Sedaris’ unique writing style has earned him a reputable place amongst the greats of American Literature.
Works Cited
Burroughs, Augusten. “Book Review Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim”. www.ew.com. 2004. Web. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,643148,00.html
Greer, W.R. “David Sedaris Brings Home More Laughs”. www.reviewsofbooks.com. 2004. Web. http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/dress_your_family_in_corduroy_and_denim/review/
Moredock, Janet. “David Sedaris”. Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007. Web. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1089895/David-Sedaris
Sedaris, David. “Us and Them”. www.npr.org. 2004. Web. http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2004/jun/sedaris/usandthem.html
Sedaris, David. “The Girl Next Door”. The New Yorker. 2003. Web. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/08/18/030818fa_fact
David Sedaris has been compared to some of the greatest American Literature writers of our age, including Mark Twain, Dorothy Parker and James Thurber (Moredock). Not surprisingly, all of the aforementioned authors managed to captivate their audiences with sarcasm, wit, and humor—three characteristics that appear the most in Sedaris’s writing. He has created a career as both an author and recording artist (having broadcast and recorded his works of literature numerous times), finding insight and pointing out the satire of ordinary circumstances in daily life. Most of his articles were autobiographical in nature, and involved the author himself as one of the principle characters in these articles. His 2004 book, Dress Your Family …show more content…
in Corduroy and Denim, is quite typical in this respect. An analysis of a pair of articles in this manuscript, “Us and Them” and “The Girl Next Door”, illustrates the author’s propensity for deriving some of the more humorous aspects of non-traditional American families. Sedaris was born in 1956, and spent part of his formative years living in upstate New York.
His family eventually moved down south to North Carolina in the early 1960’s, which exposed the fledgling author to the bustle of city life. By his own accounts, his tenure in New York was spent in an exceedingly rural location, which contrasted sharply with his new setting in North Carolina. The unconventional wit and humor (Burroughs) that the author displays in his writings more than likely descended, in part, from his unusual career path. In the late 1970’s, Sedaris abandoned his studies at Kent State University to take a series of odd jobs, while hitchhiking about the country. This would prove a highly beneficial experience for the author, who began “writing a diary on placemats in diners” (Moredock). This medium proved the perfect way for Sedaris to refine his humorous narrative style while developing commentary about the mundane events of …show more content…
life. Sedaris attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he began to read selections from his autobiography to people; his initial audiences consisted of patrons from local nightclubs. The author’s popularity eventually enabled him to read excerpts on “the city’s public radio station” (Moredock). Sedaris’ career began in earnest once he relocated to New York City in the early 1990’s. After he was asked to read various articles on National Public Radio (Greer), he began to publish his works as short stories in various publications such as Harper’s and The New Yorker. His work was usually autobiographical, and included both past and contemporary episodes in which his uncanny wit was given prominence. Sedaris’ publishing career included a number of books and audio recordings for which he received a plethora of accolades. He published both Barrel Fever and Naked in the 1990’s, the latter of which was comprised of remembrances and anecdotes about his mother. The primary theme of the book Me Talk Pretty One Day revolved around the difficulties in daily communication with others. In addition to publishing Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Sedaris has also edited a children’s anthology (Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules) and wrote When You Are Engulfed in Flames and Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary. He earned the Thurber Prize for American Humor in 2001. Sedaris recorded excerpts from Dress Your Family in Corduroy for which he was awarded a Grammy nomination, and also received a Grammy Nomination for a live version recorded at Carnegie Hall. Other than Sedaris’ humor, the primary theme that links “Us and Them” to the “Girl Next Door” is the fact that both stories portray families that are at variance with the quintessential American family. This element is quite clear in the former tale, which details the idiosyncrasies of the Tomkey family. From a distance, the Tomkey family may seem like a typical nuclear family—there is a mother and father and children living in a suburban neighborhood with typical jobs and school commitments. However, the primary distinction between this family and the author’s own (and between this family and most other middle class American ones in the 1960’s) is the fact that the former did not possess a television. This serves for a number of hilarious and sarcastic observations from Sedaris that illustrate the fact that the Tomkey family is considered an anomaly and incongruent with average American families. Sedaris also makes this point even more pronounced with his depiction of another neighboring family in “The Girl Next Door”.
Although this tale is called “The Girl Next Door”, the actual nine-year-old girl who lives next to Sedaris in this story is far from the quintessential ‘girl next door’ of conventional clichés. This dictum usually refers to a wholesome, All-American girl riding on her roller skates and picking flowers, while serving as a well-behaved extension of a well-behaved family. Tompkins completely subverts this motif in his story, instead depicting a needy girl whose mother leaves her alone during all hours of the day, and chooses to wake her late at night to take care of trifles. This girl’s family is quite dysfunctional, consisting only of her mother and her prolonged affinity for Sedaris, a 26-year-old adult in this tale. As such, the pair is ideally the opposite of the typical American
family. Yet the significant point regarding this commonality between these two stories is that the clans in each respective story are non-traditional Americans; thus, Sedaris can inject his humor into the story, which often takes the form of sarcasm. For instance, he frequently compares his family to the Tomkey family in “Us and Them” in order to make light of the Tomkey clan’s lack of a television in its household. One can argue that the only true similarity between these two families is the fact that the Tomkey family does not own a television. Yet this is greatly exaggerated in the mind of Sedaris, who depicts himself as a third grader in this tale. When his parents both learn that Mr. Tomkey is a disbeliever in television, Sedaris recollects their verbal exchanges in the following quotation. “That’s exactly how I feel”, my mother said, and then my parents watched the news, and whatever came on after the news” (Sedaris). There is subtle humor that is demonstrated in this passage, centering on the idea that the Tomkey family is somewhat strange for not possessing a television. Although Sedaris’ parents both share the same viewpoint, they continue to watch television shortly after making this claim. The author is making fun of the hypocritical ideas of his parents, as well as the idea that not watching television is unusual and not traditionally American. Sedaris also compares the two clans in “The Girl Next Door” to emphasize the fact that his neighbor’s family is different from your average American family; the similarities between the families are apparent. At this point, Sedaris’ clan simply consists of himself and his mother, while his neighbor’s family consists of a child and her mother; interestingly, the only thing that separates them is a wall. However, beyond the wall contains a world of vastly different values and teachings that each family engages in. Moreover, that difference is a source of repugnance for Sedaris’ mother as well as humor for the author. That difference is alluded to in the following quotation, where Sedaris’ mother begins to deconstruct the problems with the neighboring family, who is only identified as a nine-year-old girl whom Sedaris calls Brandi. His mother states: “‘Let’s see,’ she said. ‘Nine-year-old girl named after an alcoholic beverage. Single mother in a neighborhood the police won’t even go to’” (Sedaris). The humor in this passage is underscored by the fact that the name of the girl coincides with a cocktail (from the mother’s viewpoint, although it merely becomes funnier from Sedaris’ perspective as an author); Brandi’s mother, coincidentally, is a bartender. The humor in this passage is all supplied by the misfortune of this atypical American family, which becomes even more dysfunctional when the habits and lifestyle customs (Brandi’s mother coming home at all odd hours of the evening and encouraging her to beg from Sedaris) of the Sedaris’ mother are pointed out. In comparing the behavior of the two clans in “Us and Them”, Sedaris illustrates how anomalous the Tomkey family is by attributing all of their idiosyncratic behavior to the lack of television. What is hilarious about this is that he even includes behavior that is not directly influenced from television to simple weirdness on the part of that family. The anecdote regarding Halloween emphasizes this point, and serves as the climax of this story. While all the other families in the neighborhood were busy trick-or-treating on Halloween like other American families, the Tomkey clan were absent, preferring to spend the evening enjoying Mrs. Tomkey’s father’s house on a lake. Everyone is entitled to exercise their own free will and judgment, which was the main idea of this scene. However, when the Tomkey clan showed up the next night dressed in Halloween costumes attempting to catch up on the trick-or-treating activity they missed previously, Sedaris finds plenty of humor to discuss. The following quotation illustrates his point of view and provides an example of idiosyncratic this family was attributed, and how their behavior is somehow attributed to their lack of television. “I attributed their behavior to the fact that they didn’t have a TV, but television didn’t teach you everything”. The fact that the author’s third grade incarnation (which is utilized through the first-person narrative) comes to terms that television does not teach everything proves that the odd behavior of the Tomkey clan could not all rightfully relate to their lack of a TV. However, this same revelation on the part of the narrator serves as a moment of humor, as it really asserts the fact that Sedaris is now certain that the Tomkey clan is strange—regardless of whether or not they have a television. However, he still associates their future odd behavior to a lack of televisions. An interesting point of similarity that an observant reader might notice between these two stories is that, while depicting an unusual American family in each tale, Sedaris also illustrates a normal American family. Moreover, he then compares the same aspects of these different family types in order to create sarcastic humor, which emphasizes the idea that the habits of the families are decidedly not that of a typical American family. In “Us and Them”, Sedaris compares the Halloween habits of two families; meanwhile, his story “The Girl Next Door” compares the logic and reasoning of two mothers. The central point of variation with Brandi’s family is the dysfunctional mother. It is her mother’s choice for working odd hours, leaving her young daughter home most of the day and night, and encouraging Brandi to beg from the Sedaris’ family that renders Brandi’s ‘family’ odd. And it is Sedaris’ mother, whom considers herself as an model of propriety; in reality, she’s a little bit too overcritical. This fact establishes a comparison between the two mothers, and the author uses this in order to poke fun at Brandi’s family for being unconventional. After Sedaris tells his overcritical mother that the Brandi’s mother, his mother fails to see his reasoning, pointing out that Brandi’s mother is “cheap” (Sedaris), which is a possible allusion suggesting that both cocktails and Brandi are cheap. Sedaris replies, “I’m sorry…But aren’t I talking to someone who named her daughter Tiffany?” (Sedaris). With this quotation, the author compares the naming propensity of each mother. The sarcasm in this situation comes to light that, while Brandi is a relatively inexpensive cocktail, Tiffany is an allusion to a very expensive jewelry chain in New York. This comparison then, ultimately proves that Sedaris’ mother is the more of an ‘upper-class’ type, and Sedaris reinforces the point that the ‘cheap’ mother runs a dysfunctional family. The analysis of “Us and Them” and “The Girl Next Door” proves that the similarities between the two stories is the author’s inclusion of an archetypal American family at odds with a family with quintessential teachings of an American family. The way he accomplishes his irony and sarcasm is by drawing subtle comparisons between the two families via allusions and symbolism. Subsequently, David Sedaris’ unique writing style has earned him a reputable place amongst the greats of American Literature.
Works Cited
Burroughs, Augusten. “Book Review Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim”. www.ew.com. 2004. Web. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,643148,00.html
Greer, W.R. “David Sedaris Brings Home More Laughs”. www.reviewsofbooks.com. 2004. Web. http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/dress_your_family_in_corduroy_and_denim/review/
Moredock, Janet. “David Sedaris”. Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007. Web. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1089895/David-Sedaris
Sedaris, David. “Us and Them”. www.npr.org. 2004. Web. http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2004/jun/sedaris/usandthem.html
Sedaris, David. “The Girl Next Door”. The New Yorker. 2003. Web. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/08/18/030818fa_fact