The context of this piece is the year 2009 in an airport. One year after a very controversial presidential election in which a lot of raunchy comments were being aimed at President Barack Obama. The context of this article relates to the purpose which is for readers to reflect on the way they view people they don't know and to address the things they complain about and why. In "Standing By", I believe that David Sedaris was addressing people like this. People who are judgmental and just complain because they can.
I think David Sedaris was motivated by all of the hate surrounding him in today's society to write this piece. The most recent year he referenced to in "Standing By" was 2009., which was one year after the 2008 presidential election in which President Barack Obama won. A lot of people were being mean, hateful and judgmental to the president without even knowing him and what he's all about.
Almost everyone has judged someone based off of their appearance or have been judged based off of theirs. David Sedaris knows that this piece will touch the readers because they can relate. He wants the reader to reflect on their ways when it comes to people. I think Sedaris is trying to accomplish the goal of stopping judgments and hateful and spiteful remarks about people and just being positive and noticing the good in people before pointing out their flaws. Along with being judgmental, I think Sedaris wants the readers to reflect on complaining. In the piece "Standing By", a lot of people were just complaining about the airlines and blaming the workers because they can, which is what people do in today's society now; complain and blame others because they can. I think he wants the people who read this article to look at themselves and stop being so judgmental to people and complaining and blaming others for reasons that they are mad.
We live in a very judgmental society. The setting of this piece was at an airport which is very diverse, so there is a lot of judging going on there. Since he's writing in 2009, he's witnessed a lot of hateful and judgmental comments in the previous months due to the 2008 presidential election. I think he tried to accomplish his goals for this piece through a magazine article because people were probably tired of reading the newspaper and seeing politics and people judging President Barack Obama's first month. People wouldn't suspect an article with a meaning behind it an a purpose like this.
You say, "I think David Sedaris was motivated by all of the hate surrounding him in today's society to write this piece." This is interesting to me because doesn't it seem like Sedaris is playing the same game? That is, doesn't he judge and hate on the people he includes in his essay?
ReplyDeleteMake sure you try to ground your ideas in the text. For every claim or idea you have, use a specific example from the text to show the reader where you got that idea. This is *your* interpretation, so try to prove it based on what you found in the text.