Assignment 3

Sedaris' purpose of composing the story "Standing By" could be that he wants to give the idea of what and how as a society we can be like at any moment.  When one thing has affected society as a whole, everyone will talk about their opinions, or just random things.  Sedaris insert a poem and one part said, "All it takes is one dumb fuck, trigger-happy, with a six-pack and bad aim, to generate the spark that turns the world to flames" (276).  In this part of the poem it is probably referring as I was saying earlier; with just one person's doing it can do a lot to each individual even it’s a good or bad thing.  This could happen anywhere, but in this story it is at an airport.  I think Sedaris chose an airport so he could relate to everyone, just not to a particular ethnicity or age group.

In the story, he raises one good question at the end.  Sedaris asks, “But what if this is who we truly are, and the airport’s just a forum that allows us to be our real selves, not just hateful but gloriously so?” (277)  to me this question gives the idea that we should know we do live in a world that we try to fit in.  It’s the environment and people we are surrounded with that makes who we are as individuals.  We become our real selves when something happens to us that makes us realize we do want to say and do something about what is being said or done.  He gives an example of when something like this happens, “Somethings’s said by a stranger I’ve been randomly thrown into contact with, and I want to say” (276).  From here, I see that this does happen.  For example, something like this can happen in an elevator.  Everyone would be quiet, but sometimes there is just one person or something that makes everyone in the elevator talks.

Sedaris raise ideas that we can relate to when we read from his texts.  “…When the voice over the P.A. system asked Adolf Hitler to pick up a white courtesy phone. Did I hear that correctly? I remember thinking. IT’s hard to imagine anyone calling their son Adolf Hitler” (277) the moment someone hears Adolf Hitler, horrible things come to mind.  He raises the idea that there are certain things when we hear or see we react differently. Depending what it is, the atmosphere can instantly feel the negativity or the positive.  Sedaris raises another idea of what we do, we judge.  “The little girl’s skirt was a red-and-white check, and the matched ribbon that banded her straw hat. Her brother was wearing a shirt and tie. It was a clip-on, but, still, it made him and his sister the best-dressed people in line” (276).  We judge at what people wear, look like and probably even how they act.  This idea is to show us that we do it, so we shouldn’t be denying it. 

When I was reading this text, I think Sedaris wants us readers to feel that he is talking about society.  We become someone or say something that we don’t even think about.  Sedaris mentions, “We’re forever blaming the airline industry for turning us into monsters: it’s the fault of the ticket agents, the baggage handlers, the slowpokes at the newsstands and the fast-food restaurants” (277).  From this statement, I think Sedaris’s purpose is how majority do not understand that with the negative or the positive things that happen.  We are always blaming someone, and not thinking about how we should really react to a situation.  

Works Cited 

Sedaris, David. "Standing By" First Year Composition Reader. Boston: Pearson, 2011. 275-277. Print.

1) Is this a story or article?

2) What would a reader take out of this text?