“Is it because I’m a failure? A drug addict? A sponge? Come on, Dad, give me one good reason.” (Sedaris 88-89) Our little talk was supposed to be one of those defining moments that shape a person’s adult life, but he’d been so uncomfortable with the most important word that he’d left it out completely, saying only, “I think we both know why I’m doing this.” I guess I could have pinned him down, I just hadn’t seen the point. I wouldn't know it until months later, but my father had kicked me out of the house not because I was a bum but because I was gay. Sedaris depicts for the audience the time in his life when he was kicked out for reasons of non-inclusivity and misunderstanding by his family, rather than simply because he was not taking control of him life, and taking advantage of his parents’ residence. In the passage I am about to share, Sedaris’ use of humor and sarcasm almost led me to not realize the severity and importance of such an essential moment of his life that would affect his relationships with himself and with his family. Sedaris manages to take out this element of insincerity with the use of humor in passages that would most often make one feel upset. Sedaris does all of this without bringing any formal architecture to his literature and instead by using humor and satire, to establish a method in which to enrapture an audience that may find the sentimentality of most other writers as phony and arrogant. And through the use of a satirical tone and sarcasm to convey his message. He does this through the recounting of his past experiences from his childhood as well as his adult life. Sedaris addresses an audience of people who may not believe in the flaws and faults in their past that have affected their present, and in general anyone who encountered any difficulties and issues that affected them in their lifetimes, and conveys the message that everyone has had a less than perfect childhood, or life, and the person that you end up being as a result of these flaws in your upbringing, is nothing to be ashamed of, as it should be appreciated, but analyzed, so as not to let it control an individual’s life.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris is a collection of autobiographical essays of Sedaris’ life’s common and overlooked instances of childhood and adulthood troubles that often shape someone’s person and psyche.

Dress your family