The short story “Jesus Shaves” by David Sedaris revolves around a person in their French class dealing with the complexities of learning and speaking different languages. The focus is on the debate over Easter as it is observed in culture. This, however, is seen as a challenge as the students are only allowed to speak French, a non-native language to them. This leads to many misunderstandings and arguments within the class as the struggle for interpretation continues. The music choices portray the room's mood during specific moments to make the reader feel connected with the story by enhancing the mood, tone, and atmosphere. At the beginning of the story, chaos ensues when students try to explain Easter to a foreign classmate. Each student tries to add their input to the conversation, which makes the meaning of Easter cluttered and hard to interpret. This chaos can be enhanced by the song “Plink, Plank, Plunk!” by Leroy Anderson. The narrator observes, "The rest of the class jumped[ing] in, offering bits of information that would've given the pope an aneurism.” (Sedaris 491). Here, the narrator describes how the class reacts to the question, “What's an Easter?” (Sedaris 481). By …show more content…
This back and forth can be further displayed in the song “Torment” by Evan Call. The narrator observes, “Here in France the chocolate is brought by the big bell that flies from Rome.” I called for a timeout, “but how does the bell know where you live?” (Sedaris 492). The song I chose is a song with very strong stringed instruments that seem to fight over control of the melody, with the deep and high notes contrasting with each other, making it seem like a fight over who is right. This song enhances how the narrator feels during the conversation with his professor, making it seem more argumentative than if the story were without a