In this humorous collection of essays in Me Talk Pretty One Day, humorist David Sedaris recounts his personal experiences of living in America and his journey to Paris with his boyfriend, Hugh. The book is valuable primarily for two reasons. The first is that its essays collectively embody the theme of the individual versus society, as we see the culture shock Sedaris experiences in both America and Paris. The second value that stands out in this collection of essays is its humor. Far too often we get a critique or satire of society where bitterness and resentment come across more than humor. However, Sedaris manages to give us a strong dose of humor along with the culture shock in a way that makes it all just a bit more manageable. The essays are geographically divided into American and Parisian cultural experiences, but they are united by the culture shock and isolation of the author in each. Through an examination of six essays from Me Talk Pretty One Day, we will see the theme of culture shock and the dilemma of the individual versus society as well as the pervasive humor, whether Sedaris is talking about the inadequacy of restaurant menus or something serious like Euthanasia.
The first half of the essays in this work deal with Sedaris’ personal experiences while living in New York. We see that Sedaris’ youth involved the phenomenon of culture shock when he was ordered to speech therapy to correct his lisp. Despite his mother’s assurances, the youngster feels alienated from other students, especially those who are popular. As he notes “Had I seen one popular student leaving the office, I could have believed my mother and viewed my lisp as the sort of thing that might happen to anyone. Unfortunately, I saw no popular students” (Sedaris 9). In Go Carolina, we see Sedaris feeling as isolated and as much of an outsider in his own culture as he will later in Paris. Still, Sedaris’ accounts of his painful mome...