“A plague of Tics” by David Sedaris is a very interesting and personal story that looks into the life of someone with OCD .David Sedaris uses his trademark irony in “A Plague of Tics” in order to describe and laugh at the obsessive compulsive behaviors of his youth. His essay begins in his third grade math teachers room, and him pressing his nose up against his desk, following by licking the light switch. On his need to count his steps and do certain tasks. Sedaris describes his third grade teacher, whose disapproval is particularly directed at his urges to lick her light switch as ” odd woman”, or jab his show to his head in his crowded classroom. His actions were so intensely private, he had always assumed they were somehow invisible.Sedaris humorously describes his routine walk home from school and all his tics that he had the urge to do. It’s bluntly obvious from reading the chapter that as a child he suffered from OCD ” His “tics” or what he referred to as his “duties” were “intensely private” to him though he would constantly do them in front of other people.
Sedaris explores the use of hyperboles to explain his situation. ecause this is a true story about the author, it makes you feel more connected to the character being described; he is writing about himself, so it is easy for him to develop the character. While reading the story, his mother does not want to come to terms on why he is doing the actions he is. He explained that while waiting for their house to finish renovation they were living in a different house in the mean time which he states that his mother called, “our own little corner of hell. .” It was not the house that was her hell, it was her son’s “tics.” The house was where most of the “tics” occurred, causing the entire family distress. She explained how he “never slept,” and how in the “middle of the night” he would bang around the house, “jabbing at things.” Claiming that the house was “hell” was all she could do to cope with the “tics” of her child. That way she was able to blame an object for her frustration and not her son.
“A Plague of Tics” essay uses irony to demonstrate oddity of his obsessions and to add humor to his essay this humor works to both strengthen the ethos of the writer, showing that he is willing to poke fun at himself and putting the audience at ease in the otherwise uncomfortable topic of Sedaris’ mental condition. Irony, understatements and hyperboles were great ways to convey his story to the audience. The irony helped the readers to understand that he was not able to be aware about how his “tics” affected other people. Each device which David Sedaris uses in “A Plague of Tics” enhance the way we view his life. From these we can see the extent that a troubled mind will .go to find stability, and he displays how many forms of living exist because there are many forms of people. Each
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