Tow #19: IRB "Me Talk Pretty One Day" By David Sedaris (Part 1)

David Sedaris, a writer known for his satirical tone and sometimes crude humor, published his bestselling book in 2000 called Me Talk Pretty One Day. This book is a collection of twenty-seven essays split into two parts. The first part is called One, which includes details from Sedaris’s childhood and young adulthood before he moved to Paris, while the second part, Deux, includes stories from his life after moving to Paris with his boyfriend, Hugh.  Although he may have a much larger purpose that is more evident later in the book, so far Sedaris’s purpose is a entertain people by telling the story of his life structured in a series of short, creative nonfiction essays. So far, he has created an interesting and entertaining story by using foreshadow, hyperbole, and fresh metaphors.  In the first essay, Sedaris foreshadows how he first started speech therapy lessons. A woman asked him a question that if he had answered differently, he would not have revealed his lisp. However, before the audience knows why the simple question affected his life so much, Sedaris uses foreshadow by saying “it was an answer I would regret for years to come.” The effect of foreshadowing keeps the reader interested in his story and successfully entertains the reader. Along with foreshadowing, Sedaris keeps his story interesting by using metaphors and hyperboles in order to entertain his audience. When addressing his crystal methamphetamine addiction in the fourth essay, he states that “a fistful of burning hair could not begin to represent the mess I had made of my life.” This quote stuck out because it is fresh, meaning many people likely had never heard anyone compare their lives to being worse than a fistful of burning hair. This made the reader realize just how hard it was for Sedaris to overcome his addiction. Although the two examples I used were not humorous, it is important to note that Sedaris used humorous metaphors and foreshadowing as well. This humor along with his creative nonfiction writing techniques is ultimately what drives the plot and keeps me interested to start reading Deux.

Tow #18: Article: "The 'American Dream' May Be Bad for Your Health" by Namratha Kandula

During the 2014 Superbowl, Coca Cola released an advertisement that reflected a modern United States by showing the many cultures that are in this country.  While most people would view that as embracing the melting pot and diversity of America, Namratha Kandula viewed the ad in a different way. According to Kandula, the Coca Cola ad was actually saying "drinking Coca-Cola is American," therefore "Coke is part of the American Dream." Kandula went on to explain that lots of food companies tend to market to immigrants because psychologically, people associate food with identity. Also, when an immigrant decides to assimilate into American culture, that person tends to gradually change their diet to a super-sized American food that is higher in calories and unhealthy. Kandula in this article attempts to make people more aware of the obesity problem with immigrants to help them avoid the traps of modern marketing. Kandula achieves this purpose first by establishing her credibility, then by using examples from her own research as well as other experts' research. Kandula strongly appeals to ethos throughout the article. First, she informs the audience that "as an Indian immigrant, [she] felt pride seeing the faces and voices" of the people featured in the Coca Cola commercial. However, she later realized that this is exactly the effect that Coca Cola wanted to have on their target audience. If Kandula was not an immigrant, her opinion of the commercial would not have carried as much weight in her argument. Kandula also establishes her credibility describing her profession as "a physician whose research focuses on heart disease and diabetes prevention in immigrants." When she explains her own findings as evidence, the audience knows it is valid evidence. Kandula's research has indicated that "the junk food industry is reaching new immigrants long before the public health system can, leading to rapid deterioration of their dietary habits." Evidence like this example and her appeal to ethos help Kandula ultimately achieve her purpose of counteracting the effects of the modern marketing of food.

IRB Introduction #3: Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

For my third independent reading book, I chose Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. I chose this book because I wanted to read an autobiography since I have not read one yet this year. While looking through the list of the 100 best nonfiction books ever written, there was only one author that I recognized. That author was David Sedaris. I recognized his name because earlier this year a wrote an analysis essay on one of his essays. I liked that essay so much that I figured I would like reading a full length book about him. This book is about Sedaris's youth as well as the years he spent living in France. Hopefully I will enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed his shorter piece called "A Plague of Tics."