I came across David Sedaris's short story,
"The Youth in Asia", and decided to read it since I had enjoyed a
work of his assigned in class, "Me Talk Pretty One Day". Sedaris
writes humorous short stories and makes frequent appearances on talk shows and
radio stations. He was nominated for three Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word
and Best Comedy Album.
This specific short story chronicled the Sedaris
family’s interesting history with household pets. He’s describes about a dozen
or so being put to sleep before the story comes to a close. His parents’ Great
Dane, Melina, received much of the focus. Once all of the Sedaris children had “left
the nest” so to speak, David’s parents had felt a sense of emptiness. They
choose to fill this void with a giant dog. Sedaris includes a myriad of asides
in his writing, mainly for the purpose of entertaining an audience with a humorous
story. The purpose of this piece was also to communicate that life goes on and
it will continue to do so whether we choose to keep up with it or not. Sedaris
describes learning this difficult lesson in “The Youth in Asia” when he says, “The
cat's death struck me as the end of an era. The end of my safe college life,
the last of my thirty-inch waist, my faltering relationship with my first real
boyfriend--I cried for it all and spent the next several months wondering why
so few songs were written about cats.” Having a pet provides an opportunity to
learn what it is like to be responsible for another living thing. Sometimes the
weight of that fact is not valued. Sedaris strives to explain that his cat was
not just a cat, just as Melina was not just any dog. Melina brought his parents
together in their old age and lived through the last 10 years of their married
life.
This story was written to an audience of basically
anyone who wanted to read it. It was posted online so the body of people with
access to it is large and varied. I’m sure there is a more specific sect of
those people, like me, that are fans of Sedaris or comedic writing in general
and sought out a piece aligned with those interests.
A rhetorical device most effectively utilized in
this story is the previously mentioned asides. Even the title goes back to an
aside. To make a connection to the difficult act of deciding a pet should be
put down, Sedaris reminisced of an old cartoon he used to enjoy about two
Japanese school boys. The show was titled Fat and Skinny. One boy, Komatsu,
urged his exaggeratedly plump peer to climb a flag pole. When “Fat” explained
that he couldn’t, for it was too hard, Komatsu simply replied, “Oh but you can
do it. You must. It is required.” Sedaris repeatedly refers to the “Youth in
Asia” thereafter, and continues to include how they would feel about the deaths
of his various pets.
The short story accomplishes its purpose of
providing a humorous tale and entertains readers to the very end. Sedaris
provides many anecdotes throughout about specific pets that didn’t last very
long and family events that keep a difficult subject (pet death) very
lighthearted.
No comments:
Post a Comment