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Let It Snow By David Sedaris Analysis

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Alcohol Sadness The essay “Let It Snow” by David Sedaris is an explanation of how alcohol can have a lasting effect on a family. In this essay, Sedaris writes about his growing up with an alcoholic mother and her mistreatment of her children with this addiction. Sedaris’ writing proves this statement by sharing about one particular day when school was canceled due to a snowstorm. Sedaris is a well-known writer, playwright and radio commentator whose work often has an autobiographical focus (Faigley 89). At the beginning of the essay, Sedaris explains that on a normal school day, he and his three sisters left the house for half of the day. However on this particular day, school had been canceled for a total of five days to due eight inches …show more content…

The example of wanting to be hit by a car led to a driver who was a neighbor. Sedaris describes the event, “He had outfitted his tires with chains and stopped a few feet from our sister’s body,” (Sedaris 90). The sister explained to the driver that they were locked out of the house. This is an exceptional emotional appeal to convey to his audience that the event was traumatic to the children. Lastly, Sedaris writes about a positive outcome in his essay by giving a strong statement and analogy at the end of his essay. Sedaris described, “One moment she was locking us out of our own hose, the next we were rooting around in the snow looking for her left shoe,” (Sedaris 90). Even though children were upset at their mother for not letting them in, they still show their love toward her in this example. Sedaris’ writing showed the audience he was emotionally invested and he wants the audience to be as well. In this essay, “Let in Snow”, Sedaris proves that alcohol abuse can have a lasting effect on an entire family. He provided several examples from his own childhood experiences that described the effects alcoholism has on the family. He gained the audience’s trust by sharing his own experiences to prove and argue his point of view. Therefore, Sedaris made an extremely strong case against

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