David Sedaris 'Plague Of Tics' Analysis

In 1997, David Sedaris first published “A Plague of Tics” in his autobiography “Naked”. Sedaris published his autobiography to show people what his life was like up to the point of writing this piece of nonfiction. Sedaris had this urge to write about his life because he felt he had a story worth telling, and that warranted a book. An autobiography is perfect in this scenario for the audience because no one other than Sedaris should be sharing this fascinating adventure. The specific adventure that I’ll be referring to his his essay in “Naked” titled “A Plague of Tics”. This essay outlines some of the strangest things he with involved in, and he does a great job of showing the reader what and why he did those things. The audience that

That is the main purpose to most autobiography, to spread what you did in your lifetime to other people. The reason Sedaris wanted to spread his particular message was to inform his audience of why he did the things he did during his life. Sedaris throughout “A Plague of Tics” explains why he did all the odd things he did. He felt compelled to do every single one of them, or else he would suffer from paranoid thoughts about what would happen otherwise. Specifically he was inform his audience that it is ok to be strange, even if it means others look at you in a different light. He does an excellent job of conveying this message by detailing the parts when he felt the absolute urge to be an oddball, for example when he licked the lightswitch in the classroom. Here Sedaris shows the audience why he did this. This is suppose to make the readers empathize at the very least, and help people understand his true intentions. He undeniably entertains his audience while informing them of his life decisions though. Through Sedaris’ use of irony and sarcasm he kept his audience amused while telling them a serious message about how it is ok to be

Sedaris felt that if others knew what was going on with a person as strange as him, than others would learn that it is ok to do their own weird tics. It is also important to note that when “A Plague of Tics” took place he was in grade school and then later college. This would imply for this essay that he was writing towards people in a similar context. This essay would relate most to all the problems in the world going on with bullying. It isn’t a surprise that someone such as Sedaris got frowned upon by others for not conforming quite like the