Post #6

This last post of the semester corresponds to the last 48.5 pages of Naked by David Sedaris. His random phases of his life storytelling are displayed once again in this reading. My reading started out at the wedding for his sister as his mother is dying of cancer and ends when he is leaving a nudist colony where he discovers much about himself, hence the name “Naked.” David is happy for the last part of his book and near the end he seemed determined to show us he realized his flaws as a youth. His mother is dying and, at the time, he was too selfish to recognize her pain. Mrs. Sedaris is recognized at the end as his hero as she was a great woman and she did everything she could do for her family. He realizes her quiet pain, “I myself tend to dwell on the stupidity of pacing the cemetery while she sat, frightened and alone, staring at the tip of her cigarette and envisioning her self, clearly now, in ashes” (250). His mom is in every happy moment in the book and now that she is dying, the reader can see how she made him happy and gave him a good life. The nudist colony part leads him to self discovery. Something about the nakedness let him be okay with himself, and with self-acceptance came his ability to accept others. The people that would have bothered him before the nudist colony he now talks to and can even be friends with them.
The themes in the book stay the same throughout the book and the ideas stay the same. The topic of cats is prominent through to the end. They reappear in this reading when he meets a woman and her husband and they tell him about their twenty eight cats. She, Roberta, talks about her cats, and there are, frankly, too many curse words in a row to quote it. I have to talk about it because she talks about the cats like they disappoint her. They breed super fast in her house and she doesn’t have the cash to keep them all. Women are also a topic David writes about. Women are his mystery and the learning in his life. When he meets Roberta she is very sad, “‘…I love the sun… don’t you?’ I looked up at the sky and saw mostly clouds. How could she see only the sun and I couldn’t?” Women can do things he can’t and they know things he doesn’t and for that the women that come into his life bring in learning.

#5

This next portion of the book Naked was very interesting. We still see the same old David, cocky and ignorant, but, as we see him age, he gains some perspective and starts to recognize his loneliness. “At some point we all go beck to our family. Once we get hit one too many times” (198). Being the reader, one has to feel his growing but still we see his jerkiness. He says, “When I wake up I look great. As always” (213). He just can’t seem to stop loving himself wore than anyone else. He constantly puts down anyone even remotely different than his norm. Mr. Sedaris, while riding the bus, refers to a woman as “a poor hillbilly” (173). However much his rudeness bothers the reader there is always an undercurrent of joking. David, being much older when he wrote this, reflects on his inability to learn about others. The majority of this reading took place with a group of his new Christian friends as he is, apparently sticking with that phase of his life. He recognizes his change, “I was a Christian now, a Christian” (194). At the end of the reading though, he does end up back with his family and even says he loves them.
Themes in the book are still the same. The strongest two themes being cats represent the disappointment in his life and women are a mystery. His topic about women for the most part revolves around his mother and sisters and him being the only boy. It is a bit like he was left out of a society all around him and banned from their secrets. When his mother develops lung cancer and he is worried about her, she simply shrugs it off. She says, “…and it will happen to you someday. It will be my time soon and I accept that” (238). He is shocked that his mom would let go like that and even more surprised that she can accept dying, which, to him, is not acceptable. His mom was so calm and happy in her last months and he could not understand her attitude. The cat theme about disappointment reappears in this section when he is on a bus, which happens to be a theme in itself as busses in the story and adventures. They are at a stop and when he gets off he sees a cat. “It was beautiful and black as night… I bent to help it but it hissed and ran away” (219). No matter how much he cares for something and wants to help it, he is never rewarded for his trying with love in return.

Post #4 of Naked

Mr. Sedaris depicts himself as a complete ass. We accept David because he is our character and we can laugh at his behavior but truly, what we are laughing at is his terribleness and inability to accept others under his wealthy suburban status. He discriminates a handicapped girl he helps, “…I did that, ME, how dare she take half the credit” (149). Reading this, one is shocked at his horrible personality, but we find his inappropriateness funny like the kind humans we are. I find this interesting though because at the end of the chapter he admires Peg, the handicapped, and notes his own arrogance and childish views. “…pictured myself in a wheelchair, hoping that the person assigned to care for me would have none of my qualities” (148). This “phase” of David’s life is spent primarily on an orchard and in an apple processing plant. On the orchard and in the plant he meets some weird people and at the end of my reading proclaims himself a Christian as he is about to be attacked by a man from his work. This came to be because of a run in he had with a devout Christian who he worked for. The book is a whirlwind of events following one after the other that somehow mesh together by little strings. David didn’t develop very much as he still is extraordinarily prejudiced and horribly inappropriate. I recommend the book.
Themes seem to have been put on the back burner for the book but some exist. His topic of women evolves into the theme that they are to be revered as they present the mystery. Peg, the handicapped girl, brings David selfish happiness but not until she dies does he see what she was all about and what she went through. “Following a brief period of hard won independence she came to appreciate the fact that people aren’t foolish as much as they are kind” (152). Cats also bring something to the table. They support the theme of disappointment. When a cat enters his life they leave or die and they make apparent his loneliness and sadness. When he invests time in them they don’t return the favor. “I fed him sardines and stroked him until he set off sparks. He ran away” (166).