Loggerheads Character Analysis

Boys, as soon as they’re born, are held to certain stereotypical expectations; whether it be emotions, interests, or simply how they act or think, boys are indoctrinated to “act like a man”. David Sedaris’ “Loggerheads” shows excellent examples of these male stereotypes and how they can affect boys, mentally and physically, throughout their entire lives. Not only are young men anticipated to not express or discuss emotions, they’re held to the ridiculous expectation to have the same mainstream interests and hobbies -- sports, cars, video games, and women are just a few examples. If, for whatever reasons, a man is not interested in these specific areas or is overly-emotional, society shuns these men and paints them as being lesser and backward.

Shaun, who is a male, is a perfect representation of the average young boy; consistently not showing much emotion, and ultimately bottles everything up and handles it himself. When Shaun’s father had passed away at the end of this story, Shaun acted impeccably to society’s standards; he did not cry, nor show any emotion whatsoever. The narrator illustrates how upset, or rather how calm, Shaun is after his father’s death, “I never saw Shaun cry, or buckle at the knees, or do any of the things I would have done. Drama-wise, it was the chance of a lifetime, but he wasn’t having any of it” (Sedaris, n.d.). Instead of talking through and dealing with the grief of losing his father, Shaun closed off and acted as though he was not touched by these emotions or the events that took place. By stereotypically discrediting male emotions, men are taught that when they show any kind of emotion they are seen as cowardly or soft. With the social conditioning Shaun faced throughout his whole life, to show his anguish and internal struggles would ultimately make him less of a man. And, now that his father is gone, Shaun is expected to fit these male standards even more so, and to become the “man of the