A reader, writer, or a person who talks substantially or scant does not think in his or her mind that he or she is talking pretty. David Sedaris’s essay “Me talk Pretty One Day” is a constructed paper about how he one day hopes to in his words “talk pretty”. This essay is published in the book In Practice: A Reader for Writers and was written in the year 2000. Sedaris’s purpose of the essay is to show readers through his thorough detail and sarcasm the many challenges of learning a something new. Therefore, a student should take challenges and turn it into an addition to help onto succeeding and to realize one can achieve anything one is passionate about.
One may think to themselves how does a human being talk pretty? According to David Sedaris “talk pretty” does not metaphorically mean a person should talk like a beautiful sunflower growing under the glistening sun, he comes across as one should strive to achieve learning how to talk a language in a way more than just words put together to form a sentence. While in his article, the main concept he focuses on is learning a new language, a student who analyzes this can take this as the idea of learning something new is difficult and one will face many challenges through the course of it. Sedaris uses a large amount of pathos in his writing to have the reader feel his emotions through his writing, [“My only comfort was the knowledge I was not alone”] (Sedaris 55). A first year student will come across many challenges in his or her education journey and also through all of life, Sedaris foreshadows that one should not take these negative times as a down fall but rather as a time to prosper from them, [“The world opened up, and it was with great joy that I responded, I know the thing that you speak exact now. Talk me more, you, plus, please, plus”] (Sedaris 56). Sedaris thought himself he would never get through this challenge he stumbled upon, [“Over time it became impossible to believe that any of us would ever improve”] (Sedaris 55), anyone should take this to see that through any difficult time there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. One cannot get caught up in the midst of the challenge, it will be a student’s time to shine one day. Additionally, Sedaris enhances the fact that one can achieve a simple or broad range of ideals that one is passionate about.
While first starting out at a new job, internship, college, whatever the new passion is in a student’s life there is a considerable amount that he or she may come to think is this really for him or her. In Sedaris’ article, his passion is learning a new language at the age of forty-one, [“At the age of forty-one, I am returning to school and have to think of myself as what my French textbook calls a true debutant”] (Sedaris 52). He takes his new passion, learning a new language and the end goal of being able to “talk pretty”, by taking the criticism not negatively but in a way to help one succeed. A college student seeking their degree for their dream job may come to the point of wanting to stop and pursue something else if the workload is a bit too much, there is heavy loads of stress, or if he or she get into their minds thinking to themselves he or she will never reach that point they want to be at. Sedaris thought he would never improve based on his self-esteem of being intimidated by others and by his brutal professor, but he overcame that fantasy inside his head and eventually reached his passion. A student should come to realize that a passion is a concept one has been longing for, he or she should not give up on themselves because of a bump in the road. [“Sometime me cry alone at night. That be common for I, also, but be more strong, you. Much work and someday you talk pretty. People start to love you soon. Maybe tomorrow, okay.”] (Sedaris 55). A student is not alone in wondering if he or she will reach their passion, but Sedaris proclaims that one will achieve whatever he or she is longing for.
In this essay, by the vastly profound writer David Sedaris, he firstly talks about how he is 41 years old going back to school in Paris, France with the hope of learning the French speaking language. While language is the major key in this essay he wrote, he goes onto speak about how the fellow students around him are out of his ordinary, [“Regardless of their nationalities, everyone spoke in what sounded to me like excellent French. Some accents were better than others, but the students exhibited an ease and confidence I found intimidating”] (David Sedaris 52). The first day of class he was in other words, a nervous wreck. He studied French in a class before leaving New York, only to find out he only knew half of what his professor was saying. As explained by Sedaris, the professor took shaming as a technique used in her class majority of the time. The professor went around the room asking each student a varies of different questions, Sedaris response to the question asked was [“I then declared my love for IBM typewriters, the French word for bruise, and my electric floor waxer”] (Sedaris 54). Her response was of course shaming Sedaris for calling a typewriter a masculine identity when in the French culture it is known as feminine. All the rhetorical appeals, ethos, logos and pathos are administered through Sedaris’ article. Ethos is used simply because the essay is based on his life events that had happened. Logos is used in the sense that Sedaris realizes the method his professors uses to teach the students. Lastly, pathos is most largely used based on Sedaris’ use of sarcasm for the reader to feel the emotion he is going through during his time at school.
In conclusion, David Sedaris is a significant advocate for showing one that learning something new is rough, but the end result is more than rewarding. The purpose of this article is for the reader to feel Sedaris’ emotion, he foreshadows the point that while learning something new there will be many difficult times in the midst of it, but one should know that he or she can overcome anything one is passionate about. While a freshman college student was not the intended audience for this article, the words of Sedaris speaks volumes to students who are facing many challenges in their lives. A difficult time is far from fun but overcoming a challenge and talking pretty is intoxicating.
