"Journey into Night" http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/12/17/071217fa_fact_sedaris?currentPage=all
The beauty of "Journey Into Night" by David Sedaris is how he takes his plane trip and turns into a larger than life occurrence. Diction plays a large part in achieving his goals. On an overnight flight from JFK international airport to de Gualle in France, an experience many people have not had, Sedaris has the misfortune of sitting next to a sobbing polish man, who is grieving over the loss of his mother. However, the author creates a mystique around this man through his use of larger than life words, describing his hands as "king-size mitts" and his nose as "large and many faceted". This creates the idea that this man is almost a caricature in a fantasy of Sedaris' and adds to the depth of emotion that we perceive the polish man as experiencing.
Imagery is well utilized in this piece. The airplane is described as a hospital ward with passengers "slow footed padding" as they walk down " the dark aisles". The front of the plane bears even more resemblance to a hospital ward because there the "seats recline almost flat, like beds" and "the doted-on passengers lie under blankets and moan." This imagery is powerful because it creates a very dark mood, that is actually rather funny. This sort of juxtaposition of the dark and the funny comes in later in the piece. Sedaris tries, in vain, to hide his amusement at the hilarity of Chris Rock in the in flight movie from his polish passed friend in an attempt not to offend him. Sedaris uses this to point out their is often more depth and complexity of emotion in situations, and sometimes we are ashamed to acknowledge that.
Sedaris then recounts the first time someone who knew died. It was an acquaintance from junior high, who passed away from leukemia. Those who are really close to the person may experience genuine sadness but Sedaris had just been touched by it, so he "had been made special by it. By all appearances, I was devastated, but in fact I had never been so happy in my life." The author then talks about the first time someone genuinely close to him passes away and states that "My grief was genuine, yet still, no matter how hard I fought, there was an element of showmanship to it". His use of detail frames his argument very well. This author has the courage point out elements of human nature that we are somewhat ashamed of. Even our most genuine and selfless emotions are clouded with selfish or impure feelings. Without these details his argument would have been lacking and his point not well made.
i hate you for making me do this. I agree, i admire Sedaris' style. He is highly adept at taking a situation and making it organically flow into an opportunity for a story, like he did in the Grass story we read in class, or several of his other essays. He does an excellent job of accurately writting in a style and sequence that many people think in. Your analysis was solid, but could have used more concrete examples that point to a meaning.
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