Dave Berry's Essay From Here On, Let Women Kill Their Own Spiders

In Dave Berry’s essay, “From Here On, Let Women Kill Their Own Spiders” Berry uses a number of rhetorical devices. These rhetorical devices help explain the typical stereotypes of both men and women while also satirizing them at the same time. Using devices such as sarcasm, hyperboles, and satire, as well as using the appeal, pathos, Berry greatly connects to the audience in an emotional way. The way Dave Berry writes in this whole essay is sarcastic. He starts out the essay by addressing a question a woman asked him, regarding why a man can never find a spatula, even though it is right in front of him. (1.) This opens up a stereotype about men, saying how they can never find objects, especially when it is right there by him. This stereotype is most often held negatively by women. “Many women believe that if you want to hide something from a man all you have to do is put it in plain site.” (Berry 1.) Berry then begins to compare men to a situation when they are looking in a refrigerator. He states, “..a man can open up a refrigerator containing 463 pounds of assorted meats, poultry, cold cuts, condiments,

Berry takes an entire paragraph just to explain why we should be grateful for men. He lists multiple inventions that men have come up with that have “improved” our lives. “The shot clock in basketball is one. Another one is underwear-eating bacteria.” (Berry 2.) Berry then goes on to explain how amazing underwear-eating bacteria would be. He states, “I am picturing a utopian future wherein,when a man’s briefs get dirty, they will simply dissolve from his body, thereby freeing him from the chore of dealing with his soiled underwear via the labor-intensive, time-consuming method he now uses, namely, dropping them on the floor.” (2.) While the topic of underwear-eating bacteria isn’t particularly relevant to this essay, by bringing it up, Berry has another reason on why men are so