Me Talk Pretty One Day
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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 mo
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e important thing was to make yourself and those around you as miserable as possible” (Sedaris 44). Sedaris drops out of school and explores the speed-freak circuit. Even when Sedaris reveals his drug use he is able to do it with tongue firmly in cheek, like when he refers to his obnoxious persona when high in Twelve Moments in the Life of the Artist “Selling me drugs was no problem, but listening to my increasingly manic thoughts and opinions was far too much for one person to take” (Sedaris 46).
In the above, we see Sedaris experienced culture shock in many different subcultures of American society. In a warts-and-all style he reveals his persona through a series of events where, whether he is the guilty party or another, he looks at the interpretation of the event with humor in retrospect. It is through this humor that the narrator copes when faced with such situations, and it is this sense of humor that enables him to continue to grow as opposed to becoming dogmatic and closing himself off to new ideas and thoughts because of a lack of self-examination.
In the second half of the essays herein, we find Sedaris in Paris with his boyfriend Hugh. However, once more we see that he experiences culture shock, feels isolated
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Approximate Word count = 1466
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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