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Kimberly Adkisson
8-4 Summative Assessment Part Two: Critical Analysis Essay
In “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” the author, David Sedaris’ sarcastic sense of
humor provides a vivid mental image of the obstacles he faced moving to Paris
with hopes of getting a more authentic experience with the culture and learning to
speak the French language. Sedaris makes some ‘not so funny’ situations hilarious
when sharing the emotional discomfort of returning to school at his age and
having to learn the language from a completely unhinged teacher. Enduring cruelty
in and out of the classroom helps Sedaris find the motivation to succeed. David
Sedaris’ story offers encouragement and inspiration to never let your age, the
difficulty of a task, or others discourage you from accomplishing your goals in
life.
Entertaining the insecurities of returning to school at his age, he finds
humor in knowing he gets discounts on admission fees to puppet shows and
amusement parks with his student ID. He states that “At the age of forty-one, I
am returning to school and having to think of myself as, what my French
textbook calls ‘a true debutant”(Sedaris,1999). The first day of class he learns he
is in fact much older than the other students, making him “feel not unlike Pa
Kettle”(Sedaris,1999). In an attempt of calming some of his anxiety about the age
gap, he gives himself a comical little pep talk which brings him to the reality of
being more scared on this first day of class than his first day of kindergarten.
His anxiety of having to perform on the first day of class was only made
worse when he experienced a firsthand view of the teacher’s malicious behavior.
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Along with an introduction the students were instructed to share some likes and
dislikes in the world and when a student answered that “she hated the
mosquito,”(Sedaris,1999) the door was opened for the humiliation to begin and
extend to everyone in the class. He gives several humorous examples of the
dreadful torment and verbal abuse the students suffer throughout the story. He
shares taking her cruelty personal when she tells him that “I hate you; I really,
really hate you.”(Sedaris, 1999).
Sedaris explains how brutal encounters with others outside of class as
well as his teacher provided him with the motivation to succeed. The fact of
fearing to interact with anyone made him work even harder at learning the
language. Just when he starts to think that he will never improve, he shares the
excitement when he understands every word she is saying when she tells him
“Every day spent with you is like having a cesarean section.”(Sedaris,1999) He
makes clear “that understanding the language is a far cry from speaking
it,”(Sedaris,1999) but is ecstatic with the progress he had made.
“Me Talk Pretty One Day” is a hilarious and uplifting story. Sedaris brings
a smile to your face, at his expense, sharing the difficulties of getting older and
being treated poorly only to claim a fantastic victory in the end. When most
others would have given up on a dream, Sedaris stayed focused and committed to
accomplishing his. I have learned active reading strategies that have shown me
how to get a better understanding of a reading. I have also learned to develop
questions throughout the evaluation process in order to form a clearer opinion.
This new information along with learning large- and small-scale revisions will help
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me do more thorough evaluations and correct more mistakes within the revision
process in the future.
References:
Sedaris, D. (1999). Me Talk Pretty One Day. Esquire, 131(3), 86. https://search-ebscohost-
com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=a9h&AN=1592411&site=ehostlive&scope=site.
