Thursday, September 22, 2011

Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out SOAPSTone

The subject of Dave Barry’s “Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out” is the interpretation of men’s and women’s attitudes towards different aspects, like cleaning or sports, and how they compare. This interpretation is illustrated by Barry’s examples of sensitiveness of women and men. He says that women are sensitive to things like cleanliness, while men are sensitive to things like sports.  This supports his interpretation.
            “Batting” was written in 1988 in his Dave Barry’s Greatest Hits. The essay’s time of creation is displayed when Barry talks about the importance of the World Series, which is a popular modern sport, but was even more popular back in the 80’s. The probable place of the essay’s creation is America, because of the World Series game that he is talking about.
            Dave Barry’s specific audience is for “Batting” is men or women who want a laugh, and who want to be able to learn about the opposite gender’s point of view. The author’s target audience is exhibited by how men and women act in opposite ways in situations.
            Dave Barry’s purpose in “Batting” is to inform readers about the peculiar habits of men and women. This informing is revealed by how he gives out his points; he does this by not making either gender look like the “bad guy”, but instead, giving out equal information about both.
            Dave Barry, who is a humorist and has established himself as prize winning journalist, is the speaker of the essay (from a male’s perspective). He is speaking about how he thinks it interesting how men and women have different attitudes to certain situations in life.
            Barry shows a humorous tone about gender specific attitudes in “Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out. This tone is expressed by his light-hearted jokes about Pompeii and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, and his word choice. Some of these word choices include: “important project on the Etch-a-Sketch”, “she gives me this look that she has perfected” and “they could crush my skull like a dead grape”. These help make up his humorous and light-hearted tone.

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