Summary Of Lost In The Kitchen By Dave Barry

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Men are unable to function in the extremely high pressure situations that women try to put them in, such as helping out in the kitchen or cleaning the house. In “Lost in the Kitchen” by Dave Barry, these incapabilities are highlighted and ridiculed by Barry in order to put a comedic spin on the situation. The use of different resources of language such as stereotypes, hyperboles, and comparisons all support the main point that men are subpar in the kitchen compared to their female compatriots. Throughout “Lost in the Kitchen”, Barry speaks of the kitchen as if it contains its own consciousness, a place where women are unparalleled and reign dominant over men. The kitchen seems to be described as a trap of sorts, and he states that he would not have a preference between landing a nuclear aircraft or going into that foreign domain. As if when he gets spotted in the kitchen he will get struck by lightning and killed.
Hyperboles play a major factor in this story, and Barry even opens his article with a hyperbole saying,” Men are still basically scum when it comes to helping out in the kitchen”(1). Stating that men are worse than dirt is obviously a hyperbole, as Dave Barry is definitely a man and realistically would not say something that blasphemous unless he was trying to put a comedic spin on the situation. When he states that the kitchen is like a “nuclear aircraft”, he uses a metaphor that is exaggerated in order to further emphasize the point that men are not helpful in