Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Me Talk Pretty One Day
I really liked this piece, though I think it's because I went at it from a different angle than other people. I thought the narrator had a more cynical approach; sure, he had a hardy optimism and a willingness to keep trying, but he started to bend when things weren't going his way. He completely stopped talking to people and I feel like he continuously questioned why he was there throughout. At the very beginning he spoke of the benefits of going to college and gave off the air that they were meaningless bonuses to him, mostly because of his age. We, as readers, never figure out why he went to France in the first place; but we know he did not have a very good time. Even at the end, he mentioned his ability to understand his teacher was deceiving, and went about describing that in an almost humbling way. Like he didn't want to get his hopes up. He's realistic and I liked his character. The shimmer of hope in the last page really drew the piece together, even if there was a dash of cynicism involved. The exaggerated details regarding his instructor were a little overblown for me though. Instead of laughing at these exaggerations, I took them with a grain of salt and really felt what it must have been like to be in that environment, even if it hadn't been that bad. I don't think he used comedy for just emphasis; surely, he used it to entertain, but I think he wanted our sympathy more than anything.
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I went at this piece from the angle of the "other people" that you mentioned in the opening of your post. However, after reading your post, I can definitely see the angle that you read Talk To Me Pretty One Day from. Maybe due to the fact that this speaker could have been more a cynical character, he was intact trying to draw sympathy, which in my opinion, isn't entirely necessary in the events of this story. I like how you pointed out the speaker's age because that could be a heavy indicator of the type of person he is when putting the story's contact into account with his age.
ReplyDeleteI definitely saw this piece more from your angle. I thought he was a very relatable character going through something most people have gone through. We've all had that one teacher who is super tough and hard to deal with. The part that says, "My fear and discomfort crept beyond the borders of the classroom," doesn't scream cynical to me. It seems like he was truly broken by the situation and wanted to be able to relate that struggle with others. I do find the exaggeration of the teacher to be funny but I believe all of his emotions were realistic and appropriate for what he was going through.
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