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David Sedaris Us And Them Summary

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1. David Sedaris Titles his essay “Us and Them.” Whom does this title refer to? Whom are we meant to sympathize with- “us” or “them”? How do you know? David Sedaris title “Us and Them,” “us” meaning David seeing a normal society, and “them” referring to the Tomkeys. In the beginning were clearly supposed to emphasize with the Tomkeys because we find that the Tomkeys do not believe in television. Which from the outside looks different and foreign. Then David starts constantly thinking about how they live, what do they do, and the fact that they can’t recognize faces of famous cartoon characters. David realizes he can’t grasp the idea of the way they live, so he comes to the conclusion that they are unnatural. Towards the end you see that “us” is who we start to emphasize with David (normal society) because he starts to find the Tomekys …show more content…

Sedaris describes two handwritten signs from Halloween night. The first is attached to a “coffee can full of gumdrops” telling trick or treater “Don’t be Greedy.” The second graces young Sedaris’s bag of candy. “My Candy. Keep out.” What significance do these two signs have in the story? What do they tell us about Sedaris? The two handwritten signs from Halloween night showed irony. Even though David thinks the Tomkeys are weird and pathetic, he had failed to realize that since the Tomkeys are away, they still were able to leave out some sort of treat (gumdrops) with a sign that says; “Don’t be greedy,” to make sure every trick- or-treaters enjoy a piece. The irony is where Sedaris writes on his bag, “My candy.Keep out.”His unwilling to share with people who are willing to share with everyone else is where the irony come into play. He even started eating the candy, even though it makes him sick. It is portrayed that Sedaris is somewhat biased and unwelcoming to people who are different from him. 4. How would you characterize Sedaris’s stance? What specific passages indicate his attitude about the events he

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1. Irony as we talked about in class is considered to be intellectual or a sort of dry humor. It also has a double meaning, where you say one thing but the opposite meaning is implied. For example, in the reading “SantaLand Diaries” David and another elf realized that Santa is an anagram of Satan. So they would substitute the word for Santa by using Satan in front of customers.

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An example of irony in the essay is when Eighner mentions the students who throw out all their food at the end of a semester. Despite being educated, the students do not know if their food “has spoiled or will spoil before they return” (Eighner 111) and foolishly discard all of it. On the other hand, Eighner, who is homeless man and may be presumed to be uneducated, knows that items such as “nonorganic peanut butter does not require refrigeration and is unlikely to spoil in any reasonable time” (Eighner 111). While one may assume that the college student would have more knowledge about perishable and nonperishable food, the college student proves to be less informed than the homeless man. Another example of irony is when Eighner mentions the students who “throw out canned goods and staples at the end of semesters when they give up college at midterm” (Eighner 111).

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Literary Analysis of “Us & Them” by David Sedaris There are many people in the world that we don’t understand. David Sedaris’ short story “Us & Them” is a high comedy that uses irony and wordplay to convey the idea that just because someone isn’t exactly like you doesn’t mean you can be rude to them. In this story, there are many examples of word-play.

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“Us and Them“:Analysis In David Sedaris writing piece “Us and Them” can be said to be a strong text talking about a young boy’s interest of a non technologized family that differentiates from a normal american family .Sedaris discusses a family moving to a different towns in the narrative. In Sedaris writing a young boy in that family had a curiosity about the daily life of his neighbors known as the Tomkeys, as they were known for being strange from a normal family. The Tomkeys family was known to be different as simply as they did not believe in television. The young boy found amusing ,always spying on the tomkeys daily life , as it was like a television show for him .

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