David Sedaris Research Paper

David Sedaris
David Sedaris has been compared to some of the greatest American Literature writers of our age, including Mark Twain, Dorothy Parker and James Thurber (Moredock). Not surprisingly, all of the aforementioned authors managed to captivate their audiences with sarcasm, wit, and humor—three characteristics that appear the most in Sedaris’s writing. He has created a career as both an author and recording artist (having broadcast and recorded his works of literature numerous times), finding insight and pointing out the satire of ordinary circumstances in daily life. Most of his articles were autobiographical in nature, and involved the author himself as one of the principle characters in these articles. His 2004 book, Dress Your Family
His family eventually moved down south to North Carolina in the early 1960’s, which exposed the fledgling author to the bustle of city life. By his own accounts, his tenure in New York was spent in an exceedingly rural location, which contrasted sharply with his new setting in North Carolina. The unconventional wit and humor (Burroughs) that the author displays in his writings more than likely descended, in part, from his unusual career path. In the late 1970’s, Sedaris abandoned his studies at Kent State University to take a series of odd jobs, while hitchhiking about the country. This would prove a highly beneficial experience for the author, who began “writing a diary on placemats in diners” (Moredock). This medium proved the perfect way for Sedaris to refine his humorous narrative style while developing commentary about the mundane events of
Although this tale is called “The Girl Next Door”, the actual nine-year-old girl who lives next to Sedaris in this story is far from the quintessential ‘girl next door’ of conventional clichés. This dictum usually refers to a wholesome, All-American girl riding on her roller skates and picking flowers, while serving as a well-behaved extension of a well-behaved family. Tompkins completely subverts this motif in his story, instead depicting a needy girl whose mother leaves her alone during all hours of the day, and chooses to wake her late at night to take care of trifles. This girl’s family is quite dysfunctional, consisting only of her mother and her prolonged affinity for Sedaris, a 26-year-old adult in this tale. As such, the pair is ideally the opposite of the typical American