Analysis Of Us And Them, By David Sedaris And First Job By Iliana Rome

“Us and Them” by David Sedaris and “First Job” by Iliana Roman are both well-written memoirs but their similarities and differences start from the very beginning of the books. “First Job” is a memoir of a woman who struggles to find her passion in the workforce. “Us and Them” is a story of a young boy who cannot accept his neighbors lifestyle. They are both written under the style of first person point of view which helps the audience fully understand the author's experience.Roman and Sendaris pieces have different conflicts, settings which create tone, and selections of detail to express their styles in order to prove
In the stories “Us and Them” and “First Job” there is both present first-person points of view. Although both authors use

Although both text happen to take place in the past they both have very different physical settings. Even though the time period is similar, the place where the actual stories occur are vastly different and do not correlate with one another. Although In First Job the setting is not simply stated other than “in the states” the setting is always in a business store, as she is discussing her line of work and where abouts, but mainly focuses the setting at her hair salon. “There was a hair salon a few blocks from where we lived… I was born and raised in this neighborhood, and I know the area is getting better.”(Roman 817). This setting in placed in a populated neighborhood that is increasing in size and labor. This is very different from the setting that is described by sedaris in “Us and Them”. Sedaris describes “Back in New York state, we lived in the country, with no sidewalks or streetlight;...”(Sedaris 798). This is significantly different from the “neighborhood”(817), that was described by Roman. Neither memoir gives a specific time table of when these stories took place but you can infer that they are both from the past. The authors both use the settings in the story to help the plot of their stories. This shows adds to the plot by formatting the story and giving the audience a better feel for the story. This brings me to my next

In the story “Us and Them” sedaris’s purpose is to prove that americans are very culturally bias. This is shown through his obsession with how much the Tomkey family differs from everyone else solely for not having a TV. “ They did not know what attractive was or what dinner was supposed to look like or even what time people were supposed to eat.”(Sedaris 799). The author shows the purpose of the text to give a tone to the text to allow the audience to understand. In “First Job” Roman’s purpose of the piece is to describe how she became her own business woman and how she ran her own hair salon after years of going back to school and having multiple jobs. The author does this to help the audience grasp her attitude during the story. “I finally got my GED and went to community college to study business.”(Roman 815). The two purposes differ by Roman stating of the hard work she has put into herself to become a well rounded business women and running her own hair salon while Sedaris focuses the purposes of his story to discuss how one family differs from his. As shown these two stories have very different purposes of what each story is written