David Sedaris’ “Me Talk
Pretty One Day”, follows Michael Harvey’s ideas pertaining to flow. “Good essays unfold like stories…” (Harvey,
23) and “Me Talk Pretty One Day” does that.
Overall, the story is in sequential order, and with a nice flow and proper punctuation and
paragraphs, it allows for an uninterrupted read. However, Sedaris gives many quotes in his story to act as examples, but
he fails to explain them effectively. As
Harvey says, “most mistakes in quoting stem from carelessness with respect to
clarity.” (61) This is exactly what
happened when Sedaris writes, ‘“I recalled my mother, flushed with wine…saying,
Love...I love…” My sisters and I leaned
forward, waiting to hear our names…“I love tums.”’ (2). This quote was confusing, and I understood
what he was trying to say, but after
he states the quote, he moves on, he doesn’t elaborate; therefore, the quote
felt out of place and awkward.
Concision is another
issue. While reading the story I noticed
that the narrator was constantly discussing his other classmates and their
interactions with the teacher. While these
interactions are good evidence for his essay, I was wondering, why would he not
talk about himself? Is it not he and his
progress that this story is about? His
progress was lost in all the other characters’ stories.
Sedaris gives ample
examples, and only in one of the last lines, “and it struck me that, for the
first time since arriving in France, I could understand every word that someone
was saying.” (5), does the story come together and make sense. Although the teacher is mean, she is a good
teacher because her students do learn French.
In my opinion this is the point of the story, and it seems that Sedaris
gave too many explanations to say one important fact; and Sedaris adds it as
though it were a side note. The actual
point being made is lost because the whole essay is filled with too many
explanations. Even though Sedaris
finally states the one important lesson, he fails to elaborate on it. I found myself asking, why is the teacher
mean? Is it to make her students work
hard? Or is she a mean person? As a reader I wanted to know more about the
teacher, not the other students. Sedaris
builds up the teacher but only tells us that she is mean, thus leaving the
reader hanging and wanting more. The
message Sedaris is trying to convey is good, however, I think he could work on
concision to make his delivery more effective.
Overall the piece
flows. The introduction and the
reference to age and place are good. In
addition, Sedaris provides sufficient background information regarding the
narrator. Concision and placing of
quotes would help this piece read more fluently.
