Sedaris touches on some societal things we all do unconsciously such as looking at people that surround you and judging them based on what they are wearing. After rereading several times, instead of interpreting the story as if Sedaris stereotyping humans as i had before, I took another approach and believe that the article has a much better chance of being a satirical piece, a lesson to society. After saying mean things about each person that he encounters throughout the airport, Sedaris finally mentions the fact that all of these events that surround us could simply be a test of the mind; are we really so cruel, always looking for someone to blame? Or do we just want to be heard and need the attention?
Sedaris is living in a political time when the article was written, where Obama had just began serving his first term. Of course everyone has their political biases and opinions and most of the time, they are debatably strong biases and opinions!
As Sedaris strolls through the airport, it seems as if he wants his readers to have this vivid image of the people he sees everywhere. Sedaris describes the older woman with her two "beautifully dressed"grandchildren, the red-head with the baby and lank braids, "Mr. Mustache", and even described the guy behind him from the khaki shorts down to his baseball cap attached to his waistband. Details this far in depth to the point where you literally feel as if you were standing next to him paints a pretty clear picture of just how badly he wants us to visualize what he lived. Some of the description words he used while depicting those around him were words that assisted in swaying readers to form an opinion on how to feel or at least how Sedaris may have wanted readers to feel. For instance, after neutrally describing the red headed teenager, he goes on to change our opinions about the teen from "average teenager" to "red-headed modern Stevie Wonder". So in a matter of just reading a few more sentences, Sedaris had my visualization go from impartial to all the way on his side based on the Stevie Wonder comment. It just makes me wonder why a young man with red hair would want to wear beaded braids similar to a blind man had back in the 70's. Without Sedaris having added all of those extra details, he would not have been able to reach me in any way. Yet he goes that extra length to describe everything, giving him the ability to influence.
What were the specific comments/quotes/moments in the text that led you to the conclusion that it could be satirical? Likewise, what connection of the political atmosphere do you see Sedaris making to his purpose? I'd like to see you make that connection stronger (if you're going to make that claim).
ReplyDeleteI love that you pull out a specific moment (red haired kid Stevie Wonder) and analyze it here. Now be more specific: what specifically did Sedaris make you think? How did your perception of the red-haired teen change as Sedaris continued to comment about him? How might this relate to how Sedaris wanted you to interpret his purpose and how you actually did interpret his purpose?