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David Sedaris Us And Them Analysis

852 Words4 Pages

Peter Weller once stated, “Television is an isolating experience, sadly enough. But as good as it ever gets, it’s still isolating. You sit in your home and visit with no one.” Staring into the television screen, zoned out and mesmerized, our minds are living the life of the characters in the movie or TV show. In today’s society, people obsess over there shows instead of there family, friends, and children. The television has seized our minds, ignoring what’s happening around us. David Sedaris’s story “Us and Them” is an example of a good story because of the humor, theme and conflict, these are elements creating an intensive piece. David Sedaris portrays humor throughout “Us and Them.” Humor establishes an entertaining environment and gives the readers joy, drawing them in with comedic writing. The Tomkey family “did not believe in …show more content…

Throughout the story, David’s conflict of the Tomkeys not having a television generates a discomfort towards them and he thinks of them as wicked. Even though David’s family does not believe in television, they “watched the news, and whatever came on after the news” (850). No matter how much David’s parents did not agree on watching television, they still sat down and watched their shows as a family; it was the only activity that they knew how to do. On the other hand, the Tomkey family did not own a television; they sat at the dinner table, laughed and went on family vacation every weekend to the lake house. David tried to ignore the Tomkey children, but “it was impossible to separate him from his celebrity” (851) making David envious. The Tomkeys judged by not owning a television and spending quality time together, and with the vacancy every weekend, David “felt as if my favorite show had been canceled” (851). David is obsessing over the Tomkeys, but until he realizes how ridiculous his obsession is over television, he will never change

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As with an addiction the more you are told to stop, the more you are drawn in. Because of viewership, Americans have essentially become “chained to their image-displacement machines like lab animals to dispensers of morphine” (Nelson 308). All over America, there is a demand for power

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