David Sedaris Journey Into Night Analysis

Everyone has experienced many emotions, multiple times in their life, no matter what status they are. This is an inborn trait in humans worldwide. It is common to use personal experiences by telling stories to reveal emotions. David Sedaris, a man who knows to lure people in by his writing. Sedaris captivates his readers with his details, relatability, and dramatic irony. Sedaris’s work in “Journey Into Night” uses constant details in his work. Examples of using details in such a way include “Their slow-footed padding gives the cabin the feel of a hospital ward: the dark aisles, corridors; the flight attendants, nurses,” (1) “his face, though unlined, seemed older than mine, more used,” (2) and “Stealing a glance at his blocky, tearstained

Dramatical irony is written to show the audience suspense when the audience knows something that the character does know, but the other characters doesn’t. We know that Sedaris knows nothing about the man besides the fact of him riding the plane to his mother’s funeral. When Sedaris couldn’t handle that this man was over exaggerating his sadness of his mother passing, Sedaris concludes in his head extraordinary things: the sick mother in a hospital bed, calling her son who can’t visit her because his wife “was getting her stripper's license,” “He'd been asked to speak at his son's Alateen meeting,” and rudely replies to his mom, "I'll come at the end of dogracing season" (5). Just when you think Sedaris would calm down, he quickly mentions, “She rides to her death on a lumpy gurney and he flies in Business Elite to her funeral. The man killed his mother with neglect and because of that I can't watch a movie on a plane?” (5). Sedaris is clearly going haywire, because he can’t fully enjoy himself due to this “rude alcoholic”. In the end, a situational irony occurs because he could hear laughter which reminded him of his experiences. The father responded with abuse when he hears group laughter. Sedaris and his siblings were laughing because of the grandmother’s farts, but had no control once she farted again. “Strange that being walloped with a heavy spoon made everything seem funnier… My sisters and I would be helpless, doubled over, milk spraying out of our mouths and noses” (6). David Sedaris, becomes the nice guy, the wrongdoer, and the