TOW #21: "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris (Part 1)

     In the first section of Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris writes much about his various struggles throughout his young adulthood, including his childhood ventures in Raleigh, North Carolina, attempts to become an artist, and job of working for a rich-yet-cheap foreign woman. Through all his short essays, Sedaris maintains the same idea of working through problems instead of giving up. His audience is made up of people who are willing to try new things, and his purpose is to remind those people that they should push through whatever stands in the way of their success.
     David Sedaris is an author and comedian who has definitely had an interesting life; he grew up with five siblings, went through his childhood with a speech impediment, and experimented quite a bit with hard drugs in college. Being a comedian, he writes about his endeavors with a humorous, light-hearted tone. For example, when reminiscing about the time he worked as an English professor, he stated: "As Mr. Sedaris I lived in constant fear. There was the perfectly understandable fear of being exposed as a fraud, and then there was the deeper fear that my students might hate me" (86). In the same essay, he included an incident when he and one of his students had a disagreement, but instead of giving in and apologizing, he stood his ground and reminded each of his students that he was who was in charge. "Who am I?" he asked. "I am the only one who is paid to be in this room." The student then asked him how much he was paid to teach, and Sedaris recalls, "I answered honestly, and then, for the first time since the beginning of the school year, my students came together as one. I can't recall which side started it, I remember only that the laughter was so loud, so violent and prolonged that Mr. Sedaris had to run and close the door so that the real teachers could conduct their business in peace" (95-96).
     Sedaris's humorous, light-hearted tone helps him achieve his purpose because it demonstrates the effect of staying optimistic through difficult situations. Even though Sedaris did not like teaching, he kept an optimistic view of it. After his students laughed at his salary, he might as well have gotten angry or sad, but instead he "close[d] the door so that the real teachers could conduct their business in peace." His use of the term "real teachers" implies that he is not a real teacher, and his self-deprecating humor has the effect of showing his audience that like many of them, he has had his fair share of struggles, but instead of giving up, he kept his sense of humor handy and accomplished his goals with an optimistic mindset.