English Comp III – Hr. 3
Ms. Gillis
3/7/15
3.2 Response “Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out”
In Dave Barry’s, “Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out” you can tell his essay will be hilarious. In fact, he sets the humorous tone in the very first sentence. In the story he tells mostly about the differences between men and women, but he also tells us how women seem pickier than men. Dave Barry’s specific audience for "Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out" seems to be married women. He shows how men feel the way they do about sports and cleaning. His article can be used to explain to women what men actually think about different topics. Barry makes many references to American culture and the relationship between him and his wife. He even goes so far as to say, “...We males could not focus our attention on the various suggested topics because we could actually feel the World Series television and radio broadcast.” (Barry 5). This proves that the audience are adults because they understand the conflict in male and female relationships. Barry’s main purpose in his essay is to tell all married couples that communication can be difficult in relationships because of differing priorities of different genders. It’s basically a battle of the sexes. This message is explained when Barry reflects on the different genders' reactions to each other's actions.
Barry believes that relationships require lots of effort. This is illustrated by his repeated attempts to please his wife. Although he was very unsuccessful in these attempts and only gave a small effort in some of his actions, he clearly wished to keep their relationship. He included this value to show to even though men and women have many differences, it is important to work through them. This ties into his purpose because it tells the idea of differences in genders even further. The author’s use of imagery when explaining the "lack of filth" (Barry 2) in his house showed how different things looked from his