David Sedaris

The essays “Remembering My Childhood on the Continent of Africa” by David Sedaris and “Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out” by Dave Berry choose to outline the differences between two completely different subjects. In Sedaris’s writing, he chooses to express the extremely unique childhood of his partner growing up in Africa to his so-called “average” childhood growing up in North Carolina, while Barry elects to take on the concept of gender roles and social differences between men and women. In spite of how divergent these two essays may appear, they both employ their own tone and structure to ultimately reach the same conclusion. Despite their obvious differences of comparison, both authors illustrate a common goal, to demonstrate how we can
In order to develop his writing, Sedaris selects a similarity between himself and Hugh, their childhood backgrounds, and then further contrasts events of this similarity through use of the block method. Furthermore, throughout the piece Sedaris approaches his subject with a humorous voice that can be seen in statements such as “When I’m told such stories, it’s all I can do to hold back my feelings of jealousy. An Ethiopian slaughterhouse. Some people have all the luck,” (Sedaris 267). Although he does not maintain a serious tone, he is still able to effectively convey his message while still appealing to the audience. In addition, Sedaris discusses the naturalistic feeling of jealousy and his personal battle to abstain from being envious of Hugh’s childhood, choosing rather to “learn to take satisfaction in the life that Hugh had led,” (Sedaris 270). Sedaris admires Hugh’s childhood so greatly, he even claims that “Theirs [Hugh’s family] was the life I dreamt about during my vacations in Eastern North Carolina,” (Sedaris 270). Ultimately, Sedaris knew that he was fortunate to have grown up in his structured and conventional childhood but he “[couldn’t] help but envy the sense of fortitude he gained from the experience,” (Sedaris