An Analysis Of Barry's Guys Vs. Men

In both Jonathan Foer's My Life as a Dog and Dave Barry's Guys vs. Men, the authors write about a specific group and present their characteristics, but in very different ways.

In the beginning of My Life as a Dog, Foer describes what it is like to be a dog living in New York, but the main idea seems to be the relation between humans and animals and how they, "make us feel, in the best sense of the word, human"(248). Foer explains that human relations with animals, specifically dogs, seems to be better when we are children, and when we become adults we tend to be more cruel to animals. Foer's exact words are:

It is children, very often, who want dogs. In a recent study, when asked to name the ten most important "individuals" in their lives,

Men, Barry begins with a brief definition of man and manhood. Barry argues that men would be more accurately described by the word guy; "So I'm saying that there's another way to look at males; not as aggressive macho dominators; not as sensitive, liberated, hugging drummers; but as guys"(940). Barry describes guys as people who "like neat stuff", "like a really pointless challenge", and "do not have a rigid and well-defined moral code"(941, 943, 944). In other words guys like complex, powerful things to tinker with, participate in activities that achieve no purpose or goal other than showing off, and are not good at following the rules and are easily led astray (941, 943, 944, 945). He uses examples to support each of his points. For his first point, one of his examples was the Space Shuttle. Barry argues that "the real reason for the existence of the Space Shuttle is that it is one humongous and spectacularly gizmo-intensive item of hardware. Guys can tinker with it for practically forever... It's Guy Heaven"(942). In contrast to Foer's article, Barry supports his argument with comedy and self-experience (being a guy himself). For example, Barry

By "neat," I mean "mechanical and unnecessarily complex." I'll give you an example. Right now I'm typing these words on an extremely powerful computer. It's the latest in a line of maybe ten computers I have owned, each one more powerful than the last. My computer is chock-full of RAM and ROM and bytes and megahertzes and various other items that enable a computer to kick data-processing butt. It is probably capable of supervising the entire U.S. air-defense apparatus while simultaneously processing the tax return of every resident of Ohio. I use it mainly to write a newspaper column... This is absurdly simple work for my computer. It sits there, humming impatiently, bored to death, passing the time between keystrokes via brain-teaser activities such as developing a Unified Field Theory of the universe and translating the complete works of Shakespeare into rap. In other words, this computer is absurdly overqualified to work for me, and yet soon, I guarantee, I will buy an even more powerful one. I won't be able to stop myself. I'm a guy.