In “remembering my childhood,” the story is based on comparing and contrasting between the lives of the author and Hugh the author’s childhood life was duller compared to Hugh’s appealing childhood. . The author was some what jealous about Hugh’s life, but he also learned that you should be jealous or mad that someone has or can do something that you can’t do. The message of this short story is to be grateful for what little you have, and not to envy anyone.

In the story “remembering my childhood ” what I had found interesting in this was how the author tells the story from a young age to a older age speaking about key experiences in his life that had changed him and made him think about things different because of his situations he had been put in due to his family .I found it hard to understand how fighting for your life even though you had things you want is better then moving into more civil environments .

I noticed that he had a change of setting almost every paragraph ,The story had been based main on his side of seeing things with his own struggles ,comparing what had to what he had at the moment and realizing how much he had missed his homeland .Also learning the process of growing up.

Sometimes we find ourselves more excited and interested in the life of others, then that of our own. In the story “Remembering My Childhood on the Continent of Africa” David Sedaris compares his dull life to the life of his friends Hugh, whose life seems so much more exciting and interesting to David. He first describes Hugh experience to an Ethiopian slaughterhouse for a field trip; even though he thought it was a little inappropriate for a busload of eleven year olds, he still found it to be exciting and way better then the field trips he’s been on. David was so intrigued by the stories and the life of Hugh that he never really took time to appreciate the life of his own.

Something that stood out to me was when David spoke of a time he went to the movies to see a movie about a talking Volkswagen nothing out of the order nary happen. Then he compared it to when Hugh went to see the same movie, but when Hugh came out him and the movie viewers was greeted by a man hanging from a telephone pole and since Hugh father was late to pick him up he stood there waiting just looking at the body move with the win. David was so interested in Hughs life that I don’t think he ever wonder how these experience may have impacted or how it could affected Hugh.

I also found it compelling when David Sedaris said “I have learned to take satisfaction in the life that Hugh has led. His stories have, over time, become my own.” He was so interested in Hugh life and stories and the vivid details that he felt the stories was that of his own. The life he wish he had, the experiences he wish he was fortunate to live.  I guess that’s why in the end he kind of refers himself to a thief, since he was stealing the stories and kind of living through Hugh life instead of his own.

I wonder if David ever really start to appreciate his own life in the story he goes on to say “I should have been happy with what I had. Rather than surrender to my bitterness” for a moment he there he came to the realization that he should be happy with what he have, but it he seem to still be bitter with the life he lived.

In life there will be people who live more exciting, interesting and extravagant lives, but you should still appreciate the life of your own. We are allowed only one life and one chance to make it the best, so we must learn to appreciate it,  live it and love what we have.

Muthahar Nasim

Date :3/12/15

Remembering my childhood on the continent of Africa

5 things you observed:

• The story is based on comparing and contrasting lives of author his friend Hugh’s lives.
• Hugh’s life has full of events where he exceeded what was reasonable or appropriate.
• David was civilized with an average normal American life in North Carolina.
• Hugh story about going on a field trip to a slaughterhouse as a kid, something that would traumatic for kids in author’s society in his childhood shows the difference of their lives.
• The author was envious about his friend Hugh’s life in the story but it also made him learn to realize someone else is also envious of his life just like the way he is desirous of Hugh’s life. He realized he should be happy and satisfied with his life.

3 Compelling Moments:

1) Hugh’s story about being in a slaughterhouse for a field trip at a young age.

2) I found this story to be compelling because it shows as we grow older we stop being envious of our friend’s childhood and start embracing and understand our own.

3) Hugh going to Ethiopia to live with a beer enthusiast whom his father met at a cocktail party at the age of 14.

Question:

I wonder if Hugh’s childhood story was an exaggeration by the author?

Purpose: The purpose of this story to show the audience that we always want what we don’t or didn’t have even though ours might be better than the one we are envious about.

Vanessa Espin

Response:

The story “Remembering My Childhood on the continent of Africa,” by David Sedaris is an example of comparing and contrasting. He compares his “boring” childhood life with the “exotic” life of a boy named Hugh. David describes Hugh’s life, very vividly, and detailed. He starts by describing a field trip Hugh’s had to the Ethiopian slaughterhouse, which was an inappropriate place to take an eleven-year-old kid, but yet so exiting to David. It was better than his field trips, at his school in America. David was blinded by what he wanted that he wasn’t appreciating what he had, or valuing what Hugh’s life was like. At the end he realized how foolish he was, by not realizing that he is fortunate enough, just by simply living in the United States of America.

I found it interesting when he said, “When told such stories, it’s all I can do to hold back my feelings of jealousy. An Ethiopian slaughterhouse.” This emphasizes how he significantly compares his life to Hugh’s. He sees this field trip as one of Hugh’s significant memories, when in reality it really isn’t.

I also found interesting when he said, “Like me, Hugh’s saw the movie by himself on a weekend afternoon. Unlike me, he left the theater two hours later, to find a dead man hanging from a telephone pole at the far end of the unpaved parking lot.” This was a common scene in Africa, an horror, traumatic scene for any eleven year old kid, yet he was still wanting Hugh’s life. It shows the ridicules envy of wanting what someone else has.

I wonder if he fully learned to appreciate his life because at the end he says that he is a thief for stealing Hugh’s memories, and that when his own experiences fall short, he goes out and spends some of his.

Sedaris purpose is to show how foolish it is not to appreciate what you have. His essay encourages the reader to be satisfied with what they have and not focus on what they don’t have. His arguments are childish but they teach a very valuable lesson, that It is okay to dream of what you don’t have, but not okay to take for granted what you already have.