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
Living in Paris, Sedaris returns to school as a 41-year-old. He attends a school with a number of other international students, many of whom are from different countries. Although the other students don’t speak perfect French, Sedaris is intimidated by their confidence. During his first class, he struggles to understand his teacher. Although he can comprehend most of what she’s saying, certain crucial words elude him. When she asks the class if they know the alphabet, Sedaris’s first reaction is to laugh because it’s been so long since somebody has asked him this. But then, after thinking about it, he realizes that he doesn’t know the alphabet, or at least doesn’t know how to recite it in French.
Realizing that he doesn’t know how to recite the alphabet in French, Sedaris experiences the humbling nature of learning a new language. Although he has previously demonstrated a lack of motivation to integrate himself in French culture, he has now decided to earnestly set himself to the task of learning French. In doing so, he has to face the harsh fact that he is not above anything and must approach his studies with the humility of a young child. Given that Sedaris often struggles with feeling inadequate, this is undoubtedly a challenging predicament.
Themes
Sedaris’s French teacher asks her students to say their name, nationality, occupation, something they like, and something they dislike. Whenever people say what they dislike, she makes fun of them, saying things like, “How is it that we’ve been blessed with someone as unique and original as you?” As class goes on, she becomes increasingly hostile, and Sedaris frets about what he’ll say. He has no idea what to say he loves, since he doesn’t know the necessary words to explain that he loves looking through medical textbooks about “severe dermatological conditions.”
On top of the fact that signing up for French classes forces Sedaris into an uncomfortable place of humility, his teacher is frighteningly mean. No matter what he does, then, it seems he won’t be able to escape ridicule and embarrassment—two things that will no doubt exacerbate his preexisting feelings of insecurity and fears of inadequacy.
Themes
When his turn comes, Sedaris lists the kinds of food he hates. He then says that he loves typewriters, the word “bruise” in French, and his floor waxer. In saying this, he misgenders the words for typewriter and floor waxer—something his teacher berates him for. As she insults him, he says nothing, deciding not to explain that he thinks it’s ridiculous to assign genders to inanimate objects. Why, he wonders, would anyone ever decide that a crack pipe is a woman or a dishrag a man? Still, he says nothing and lets his teacher go on. Eventually, she goes to the next person and then the next, continuing to mercilessly insult her new students.
In this section, Sedaris comments on the strange fact that the French language assigns genders to its nouns. It is this kind of casual observation about things that most people take for granted that characterizes Sedaris’s writing, revealing not only his unwillingness to accept supposedly normal ways of doing things, but also his ability to highlight just how strange some things truly are. Unfortunately, though, he’s too self-conscious about his French to express this to his teacher in the moment, so he simply sits back as she belittles him.
Themes
Throughout the semester, Sedaris and his fellow students learn to put up with their French teacher’s irascible nature, realizing that her mood changes drastically by the minute. She often throws chalk at them, and though she never punches anyone, Sedaris stays on his guard just in case. One day she turns to him and, in perfect English, says, “I hate you.” As he gapes at her, surprised that she has used English even though they’re not allowed to speak anything but French, she adds, “I really, really hate you.” Trying to deal with this environment, he starts studying for hours every night, laboring over his homework and completing fill-in-the-blank sentences with phrases like: “A quick run around the lake? I’d love to! Just give me a moment while I strap on my wooden leg.” His teacher is unamused by this attempt at humor.
In order to deal with his cruel French teacher, Sedaris devotes himself to his work like never before. More importantly, though, he doesn’t lose his sense of humor. In fact, he indulges his knack for quirky comedy by integrating it into his homework. This is a perfect representation of how he uses humor in all aspects of his life, prioritizing it above even his own feelings. In this regard, then, one might argue that Sedaris’s preoccupation with comedy is something of a coping mechanism, though this argument might also be too prescriptive, since the essays in Me Talk Pretty One Day are uninterested in actually mining such deep psychological or emotional matters.
Themes
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Sedaris’s interactions with his terrifying teacher make him extremely self-conscious about his speaking skills. Before studying with her, he felt confident enough to use his French even though it was very bad. Now, though, he’s too afraid to even answer the telephone. The only thing that makes him feel better about being a student in this woman’s class is the fact that his peers are also struggling. They huddle together in the halls before class and talk about how they cry at night. Consoling each other, they say things like, “Much work and someday you talk pretty.” When Sedaris took a French class in New York City, the students were competitive with each other. But here, the students feel a sense of camaraderie.
Sedaris’s French teacher is obviously meaner than she should be, creating a hostile classroom environment that ends up scaring people like Sedaris from even trying to use their French. At the same time, though, her cruelty encourages the students to unite with one another, trying to support each other instead of competing with one another like the students in Sedaris’s French class in New York City. At the very least, then, Sedaris knows he’s not the only person who dreads coming to class.
Themes
Sedaris begins to feel as if he’ll never be able to learn French. One day, though, his teacher looks straight at him and says, “Every day spent with you is like having a cesarean section.” In this moment, he realizes that—for the first time ever—he has understood every single word spoken to him in French. This doesn’t mean he can respond, but he’s delighted just to understand his wicked teacher, listening to her as she adds, “You exhaust me with your foolishness and reward my efforts with nothing but pain, do you understand me?” Ecstatic, he uses his flawed French to tell her that he does understand, pleading for her to go on, saying, “Talk me more, you, plus, please, plus.”
Even though Sedaris dislikes his teacher and is afraid of her, he is overjoyed when he realizes that he has finally understood an entire phrase in French. Rather than resenting her for insulting him, he celebrates the fact that he’s making progress, thereby indicating that he has managed to focus on his attempt to learn French instead of on his various insecurities. Indeed, his ability to ignore his teacher’s insult suggests that he has achieved a new level of self-assurance.
Themes
