Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Me Talk Pretty One Day, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Insecurity
Humor, Commentary, and Observation
Class and Belonging
Family, Love, and Support
Summary
Analysis
Sedaris’s father, Lou, loves jazz. He works at IBM as an engineer, but Sedaris has always thought he might have made an excellent musician in another life. Every evening, he comes home from work and listens to his record collection, forcing Sedaris to sit with him and listen closely to the jazz greats. No matter what Sedaris says, his father always thinks his son isn’t listening hard enough or appreciating the music as much as he should be. The Sedaris family now lives in North Carolina, but they used to live in New York State, allowing Lou to make trips to New York City to hear jazz legends at storied venues. When IBM relocated him, he was appalled at the idea of living in a place like North Carolina, which he felt lacked culture. These days, he’s forced to express his appreciation for jazz through his record collection.
The beginning of “Giant Dreams, Midget Abilities” (which, readers should note, makes use of the outdated, offensive term “midget”) makes it clear that Lou Sedaris is somebody who forces his own interests onto his children, hoping they will appreciate the same things he does. This introduction also hints at the fact that Lou has certain prejudices against southern places like North Carolina, which he thinks isn’t cultured enough. In this way, Sedaris subtly invites readers to reflect on the ways in which socioeconomic class factors into his upbringing, implying that his family sees itself as more refined and sophisticated than their new neighbors in North Carolina.
Themes
One night, Lou takes Sedaris and his sisters Lisa and Gretchen to the nearby university to see a concert by the jazz pianist Dave Brubeck. Brubeck is, at the time, playing in a jazz combo with his sons, and this gives Lou an idea: the Sedaris siblings should start a band. He is extremely excited about this after the show, and by the time the family gets home, it’s clear there’ll be no stopping him from pursuing it—despite the fact that neither Sedaris nor his siblings want to play music. The only interest Sedaris has in music is his dream of singing commercial jingles in the style of Billie Holiday, beautifully singing about cigarettes or other products. However, he and his sisters go along with their father’s idea because they have no other choice.
Lou Sedaris’s enthusiasm emerges in this section as something of a burden on his children. Although he just wants to introduce them to a hobby that they might enjoy, his excitement seems to overshadow his ability to see that none of his children actually want to do this. Consequently, the Sedaris siblings have to put up with their father’s overbearing nature. This dynamic resurfaces throughout Me Talk Pretty One Day, as Sedaris grapples with the fact that he and his father have very different ideas about what is and is not worth doing in life.
Themes
Lou buys a baby grand piano and signs Gretchen up for piano lessons even though she’s never voiced an interest in the piano. He then buys Lisa a flute and signs her up for flute lessons. Finally, he gives Sedaris his instrument. “Hold on to your hat,” he says, “because here’s that guitar you’ve always wanted.” Hearing this, Sedaris is convinced that his father has confused him for somebody else. He has never asked for a guitar, though he has asked repeatedly for a “brand-name vacuum cleaner.” The guitar, on the other hand, is completely unappealing to him, even in a visual sense, since it doesn’t go with the strict nautical theme of his bedroom. Nonetheless, his father signs him up for guitar lessons and drops him off for his first session at a nearby mall, driving away as Sedaris yells that he doesn’t want to play guitar.
Again, it becomes clear that Lou Sedaris has let his own interest in music eclipse all other concerns, failing to recognize that his children don’t share his enthusiasm. As Sedaris tries to make sense of why his father thinks he wanted a guitar, readers come to understand his eccentric nature—after all, it’s quite uncommon for a young boy to want a “brand-name vacuum cleaner” more than a guitar. With this in mind, it’s not that surprising that Lou Sedaris miscalculates what his son wants, since it’s obvious that Sedaris has unique and unconventional interests. And yet, the fact that Lou doesn’t recognize this is further proof that he has let his own interests—along with his assumptions about what young boys like—overshadow his ability to discern what his son actually wants.
Themes
Inside the music store, Sedaris meets his guitar teacher, a little person named Mr. Mancini. Sedaris is fascinated by Mr. Mancini, whom he thinks of as a “midget.” Mr. Mancini is a sharp dresser, and twelve-year-old Sedaris is instantly intrigued by him, paying more attention to his height and physical proportions than to the task of learning guitar. Mr. Mancini notices Sedaris’s fascination and doesn’t like it, though he says nothing. Instead, he lights a cigarette and explains that he learned to play guitar during just one summer in Atlanta, Georgia, which he refers to as “Hotlanta G.A.” He says that there are countless attractive women in Atlanta and starts talking about a woman named Beth, after whom he named his guitar.
Perhaps to deflect Sedaris’s impolite fascination with the fact that he is a little person, Mr. Mancini starts talking about women. In doing so, he unknowingly turns the tables on Sedaris, undoubtedly making him the uncomfortable one—after all, Sedaris is not only a mere 12-year-old who probably doesn’t want to talk to an adult about sexual attraction, he is also completely uninterested in women in the first place. As a result, both Sedaris and Mr. Mancini find themselves in a situation in which they have to deal with the ways in which other people conceive of their identities. In turn, readers see that it is often difficult to control one’s own self-presentation, since people often make assumptions about each other and treat one another according to their own preconceived notions.
Themes
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Mr. Mancini tells Sedaris it’d be helpful if he named his guitar, so Sedaris decides to call the instrument Oliver. This confounds Mr. Mancini, who says Sedaris should name his guitar after a girl. Sedaris, for his part, wants to call his guitar Oliver because that’s his hamster’s name, but he follows Mr. Mancini’s instructions and says he’ll call his instrument Joan. What he doesn’t say, though, is that Joan is his cousin’s name. “So tell me about this Joan,” Mr. Mancini says. “Is she something pretty special?” Scrambling, Sedaris tries to describe Joan saying, “She’s tall and…” Suddenly, he feels awkward for talking about height, so he tries to back up by saying, “She’s small and has brown hair and everything.” In response, Mr. Mancini asks if Joan is “stacked,” but Sedaris doesn’t know how to answer because he’s recently realized that he never notices anyone’s breasts at all.
Mr. Mancini’s insistence on talking about women and their attractiveness is deeply uncomfortable for Sedaris, since he is in the midst of realizing his sexual orientation and has recently noticed that he’s not attracted to women. In all likelihood, this isn’t something he has shared with anyone, so he obviously doesn’t want to talk about it with Mr. Mancini. For this reason, he simply goes along with his teacher’s questions. This leads to a humorous exchange in which Sedaris unconvincingly tries to approximate the way he thinks a heterosexual man like Mr. Mancini might talk about women. In the same way that he pretends to like football in “Go Carolina” in order to avoid judgment, he now postures as a heterosexual young man, ultimately hiding his true identity.
Themes
As Sedaris and his sisters continue their music lessons, their interest in learning their instruments doesn’t increase. On the rare occasion that they practice, the house fills with terrible sounds. Sedaris’s mother responds by turning up the radio, but his father raves about how fantastic it is to have a house full of musicians. Although his excitement almost seems like a form of “mania,” Sedaris notes, nobody could ever say that Lou Sedaris is unsupportive of his children.
It’s true that Lou Sedaris is quite supportive, as evidenced by the unyielding way he encourages his children even when they’re clearly terrible at music. However, this support has a relatively narrow scope, as Lou focuses primarily on encouraging his children to pursue his passion, not theirs. As a result, Sedaris and his sisters don’t necessarily benefit as much as they could from their father’s support, since they have no interest in excelling in music in the first place.
Themes
Sedaris continues to see Mr. Mancini. His main interest is still on Mr. Mancini’s height and how he does everyday things like shave. Meanwhile, he doesn’t practice, prompting Mr. Mancini to give him advice like, “You need to believe you’re playing an actual woman,” adding that Sedaris should “grab her by the neck and make her holler.” This makes Sedaris quite uncomfortable, and he doesn’t understand why his sisters’ teachers don’t compare their instruments to boys. Fearing that sexual desire might actually lead to musical talent, he decides to stay away from Lisa’s flute, worrying that he would reveal himself as a prodigy. Instead of playing an instrument, he decides, he will devote himself to singing.
Sedaris grapples with his own identity (and, more specifically, his sexual identity), and this process brings itself to bear on his experience as a music student. As Mr. Mancini continues to sexualize the guitar in a heteronormative manner, Sedaris becomes jealous of his sisters because their teachers don’t integrate such private matters into their lessons. Thinking this way, he is once again forced to consider the fact that he isn’t attracted to women even though everyone in his life seems to assume he is. When he looks at Lisa’s flute, then, he decides once and for all to stay away from it, just in case its phallic shape gives away his attraction to men.
Themes
At the mall one day, Sedaris sees Mr. Mancini ordering food at a fast food restaurant. Nearby, a group of teenagers make fun of him, prompting Sedaris to feel protective of Mr. Mancini. Feeling sorry for Mr. Mancini and somewhat possessive of him, Sedaris thinks that if anybody should get to laugh at Mr. Mancini, it should be him, not these boys who don’t even know the man.
Although Sedaris hasn’t previously felt any kind of connection to Mr. Mancini, he suddenly relates to him when he sees a group of teenagers making fun of him. This is perhaps because Sedaris knows what it’s like to feel different than everyone else, since he is a closeted young gay man living in a heteronormative context. Because of this, he finds himself capable of empathizing with Mr. Mancini even though he himself is not a little person.
Themes
At his next lesson, Sedaris wears a tie and informs Mr. Mancini that he hasn’t practiced at all. He also admits that he named his guitar after his cousin and that he has no intention of ever learning the guitar. Instead, he says, he wants to sing like Billie Holiday, explaining that he wants to sing commercial jingles. He even has a routine already, he says, closing his eyes and launching into a bologna commercial that he often sings when he’s alone in his bedroom. When he finishes and opens his eyes, Mr. Mancini puts his hands up and says, “You can hold it right there. I’m not into that scene.” This confuses Sedaris, but Mancini continues, saying that there were “plenty of screwballs” like Sedaris in Atlanta but that he doesn’t “swing that way.” He then says, “For God’s sake, kid, pull yourself together.”
Sedaris opens up to Mr. Mancini after seeing him at the mall and feeling sorry about the way teenagers make fun of him for being a little person. Deciding to be straightforward with his teacher, he makes himself vulnerable by revealing his only true musical interest, which is undeniably eclectic. But instead of seeing Sedaris’s musical routine as creative (albeit somewhat strange), Mr. Mancini thinks—for some reason—that Sedaris is coming on to him in a romantic or sexual way. Worse, he calls Sedaris a “screwball,” revealing his homophobia. As a result, Mr. Mancini not only subjects Sedaris to the same kind of mean-spirited intolerance that he himself faces as a little person, but also insults Sedaris’s attempt to put himself out there by singing.
Themes
After his lesson, Sedaris tells Lou that Mr. Mancini said he should quit music because his fingers aren’t suitable for the guitar. This disappoints Lou, but he accepts the excuse. Taking a cue from their brother, Gretchen and Lisa give similar excuses, and though their father tries to tempt them with new instruments, they ignore him. When he tries to make them listen to a record he hopes will inspire them, Sedaris realizes that his own dreams of becoming a musician will never return, since he now associates music with Mr. Mancini telling him to pull himself together. As he and his sisters walk away from their father, he offers them each $5 to simply listen to the record he has chosen, but they pay him no attention, going to watch television with their mother instead. That night, Lou falls asleep listening records, dreaming as the music plays.
To his credit, Lou Sedaris doesn’t force his children to continue playing music after they quit. He does, however, express his disappointment, and though Sedaris and his siblings don’t seem to care all that much that they have failed to fulfill their father’s musical dreams, the fact remains that he continues his attempt to force his passion onto his children without fully recognizing that they have no interest in pursuing what he himself values.
Themes
