Topic > The writer's duty in Me Talk Pretty One Day, a book by David Sedaris

The writer's duty is the author's responsibility to connect and convey their message, through the expression of human nature, to the audience in their craft. William Faulkner, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1949, shows the meaning of responsibility in his acceptance speech. Essay composers including Sedaris, in “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” embody the writer's duty described by Faulkner, using personal anecdotes and a satirical attitude to convey the need for persistence when facing a challenge. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay William Faulkner believed that writers should incorporate “love, honor, pity, pride, compassion, and sacrifice” into their writing. That authors must express the emotions of the human heart and not be afraid to write about fear and truth. In this way, their voice “is not simply the testimony of man, it can be one of the supports, the pillars to help them resist and prevail”; their voice becomes a beacon of support and guidance. It highlights the need for emotions to connect with the audience and convey an individual's purpose: only then can a writer's duty be fulfilled. Sedaris uses Faulkner's stated attributes of the writer's duty in "Me Talk Pretty One Day." In the essay, the narrator is Sedaris himself, a forty-year-old who moves to France to undertake a journey to learn the French language. Through the essay, he conveys the process of learning a new language, especially French in context, as a quagmire. Sedaris illustrates the need for perseverance in tackling a challenge such as learning French, ultimately establishing the writer's duty. Through the use of personal anecdotes, he creates a first-hand account of his experience as a nervous French student to connect with the reader. The ethos is present primarily in the anecdote as it is based on Sedaris's actual encounters with learning French. Use of personal pronouns, “… (a) I hadn't been asked that question in a while and (b) I realized, laughing, that I didn't know the alphabet myself,” and specific details of his learning experience in the anecdote, it triggers the connection between the author and the audience with credibility. Readers can trust the content of the essay through the personal narrative and relive Sedaris' struggle in learning French. Furthermore, due to the connection established, he can motivate the audience while portraying himself as a symbol of tenacity for people who share similar situations with him while facing a challenge. The connection between him and the audience is further strengthened with vivid and metaphorical imagery. language that leads to the pathos present in his anecdotes. She correlates her environment to distinct images associated with her emotions, “Her bunny mouth gasped for air, and she stared at her lap as if the appropriate response was sewn..”, exhibiting the condescending figure her teacher emitted by comparing her to a predator looking down on its prey. Sedaris communicated to the audience that he was intimidated not only by his teacher's antics but by the French language itself: "My fear and discomfort crept beyond the confines of the classroom and accompanied me onto the broad avenues." The language impacted his social life outside of the classroom: he rejected opportunities that involved him speaking in dialect. Despite his teacher's negativity and fearful French, he struggled to understand the lesson material, "spending four hours every night on homework," demonstrating.