David Sedaris:Identity Construction..

The assignment was to read Go Carolina and The Learning Curve by David Sedaris and construct his identity from what we read.



Although this seemed to be an easy assignment, I found that it was not. It is hard to read something that somebody wrote and find key identity traits. Most people like me need to know the person or at least have one face to face interaction to tell what a person's identity is or may be. I will make an attempt to do this and this is only what I infer from reading this.


First off, in reading "Go Carolina", this is where I made most of my notes on his identity. I think it was easier to find what his identity was like while he was a child and interacted more amongst others. From this story I found that he is obviously a child with a very distinguished lisp. I also find him being intelligent at a young age because even though he had a lisp, he also used quite intelligent words and words that "normal" children probably wouldn't use because they don't know the words yet. I also found him to be kind of troubled because of his lisp, he was very insecure and sensitive about his speech impediment and about his "speech therapy". He was also sensitive to what people in class or other kids would think or say. He seemed to me like a chameleon; he wanted to blend in and be like everybody else. He wanted to be very conspicuous and did not want to be made fun of and did not want people to know of his impending speech therapies at 2:30. He seemed very confidential about a lot of things like his baking, or fantasies, and about his speech sessions. In other words, he was the "odd ball", he seemed to stand out greatly in class and even in North Carolina because he wasn't a sports fanatic like the others. He just seemed to tell people what they wanted to hear, like a pushover. Mr. Sedaris also did not seem so "well off", I mean not poor just not so well off especially when explaining how his Christmas would go.

In "The Learning Curve", I found him to be very feminine. While he was a homosexual, he was the feminine one's with the girl voice and feminine qualities. He is very timid and seems to avoid the arising confrontations with students and anybody else who came along. I think he really died for acceptance among everybody;young or old. He was very analytical, he analyzing everything and everybody. He did not take chances or go beyond what was expected. The characteristics he lacked as a teacher he covered up. The things he lacked as a man he also covered up. He stayed the same from child to adult.


In conclusion, his identity from my point of view is:

>white, caucasian male
>insecure, sensitive and troubled
>homosexual and feminine
>need for validation
>dry humored
>intelligent, confidential
>odd
>maybe a geek