Henri Bergson once wrote, “Several have defined man as ‘an animal which laughs’. They might equally as well have defined man as animal which is laughed at; for if any other animal, or some lifeless object, produces the same effect, it is always because of some resemblance to man, or the stamp he gives it or the use he puts it to.” With this quote in mind, “Me Talk Pretty One Day” by David Sedaris more effectively presents people as ‘creatures who’re laughed at’.
“Me Talk Pretty One Day” focuses around Sedaris’s return to school and his experiences with his short-fused French teacher. To start, I believe it’s reasonable to argue the teacher is ‘an animal which laughs’. After all, Sedaris provides a variety of examples of his French teacher mocking and ridiculing students. His teacher mocks students for uninspired answers, yells at Sedaris for assigning incorrect gender to a typewriter, and even stabs a girl in the eye after she says the incorrect tense for the word defeat. The teacher also seems to find an almost sadistic enjoyment in watching her students squirm. She sarcastically responds and insults Sedaris and others multiple times. She is definitely an ‘animal which laughs’, but at what? …show more content…
In this case, she is laughing at Sedaris and his classmates, and this makes them ‘animal which are laughed at’. After all, Sedaris provides a variety of examples that show him and his fellow students to be the source of her amusement. Their mispronunciations, incorrect tenses, and all around “poor” French seems to fuel their teacher’s amusement. With this in mind, the question now boils down to what is shown more effectively. Does the teacher more effectively present people as ‘animals who laugh’, or do the students more effectively represent people as ‘animals that are laughed
“Me Talk Pretty One Day” focuses around Sedaris’s return to school and his experiences with his short-fused French teacher. To start, I believe it’s reasonable to argue the teacher is ‘an animal which laughs’. After all, Sedaris provides a variety of examples of his French teacher mocking and ridiculing students. His teacher mocks students for uninspired answers, yells at Sedaris for assigning incorrect gender to a typewriter, and even stabs a girl in the eye after she says the incorrect tense for the word defeat. The teacher also seems to find an almost sadistic enjoyment in watching her students squirm. She sarcastically responds and insults Sedaris and others multiple times. She is definitely an ‘animal which laughs’, but at what? …show more content…
In this case, she is laughing at Sedaris and his classmates, and this makes them ‘animal which are laughed at’. After all, Sedaris provides a variety of examples that show him and his fellow students to be the source of her amusement. Their mispronunciations, incorrect tenses, and all around “poor” French seems to fuel their teacher’s amusement. With this in mind, the question now boils down to what is shown more effectively. Does the teacher more effectively present people as ‘animals who laugh’, or do the students more effectively represent people as ‘animals that are laughed