This story was comparing two lives. This story also contrasted the life style of Hugh’s old life to his new one. His life beforehand was unimaginable in the same light of his new one. He went from a life most people dream of to a life no one wants to aspire to have. The author was describing how if one had certain things they became more important than others. He realized that he should be happy with what he has now and to stop comparing his life with Hugh’s. In the end he happened to take the memories from Hugh’s life style and pretended as if they were his own, but he did realize he should be glad about what his life had to offer.

The story “Remembering my Childhood on the Continent of Africa” David Sedaris compared the life of his own and the life of his friend an eleven year old boy name Hugh. David describes life as to be exotic and more interesting than that of his own. He describes his life to be very dull and the only somewhat exciting experience he had and recalls was when he went to visit his grandmother who seem not to know who he was.  The life and stories of Hugh going to an Ethiopian slaughterhouse, having house boys as he called it and going to different family vacation intrigued him, as he said when told stories “it’s all I can do to hold back jealously”. At the end David realized that maybe he should appreciate his own life.

In the story the author David Sedaris showed comparing and contrasting at it’s finest. He compared his childhood in North Carolina with another boy named Hugh from Africa. While reading the story you can sense that they go through very similar stuff but the other character experiences are a little more exciting. Hugh went through stuff that kids usually don’t go through like going to a slaughter house! Who takes kids to a slaughter house?! It made David jealous in a way because he felt like he lived an ordinary life with no excitement. He even mentioned “Hugh’s family was hobnobbing with chefs and sultans while I ate hush puppies at the Sanitary Fish Market..”. In every paragraph you can just see how he makes Hugh seem so superior to him, and how badly he wants to liv his life. In the end of the story he even tells the readers how he’s having a dream going on an adventure with Hugh.

In the story “remembering my childhood” while I was reading I had noticed Hugh (main character) had been telling his story about growing up since he had been 7 giving out a lot of detail on his experience on how his life was more interesting because of things that he had owned and the way how his family lived ,while when older he had went to new York where he had said himself it was a “roughned experience” for him even though he had to fight to survive daily in Africa while he only spent 10 days in new York . Hugh had been moving from place to  place such as Kentucky , North Carolina , Ethiopia , from family to family dealing with different surroundings .While he had wanted to be back home ,which had been the life he was dreaming about .

Vanessa Espin

Summary

In the story, “remembering My Childhood on the Continent of Africa” David Sedaris compares two lives, his and Hugh’s life. Hugh was an eleven year old who lived an exotic life in Africa, full of spontaneous, and outrageous moments. David on the other side described his civilized American life, as being dull and extra ordinary. He starts by telling the story of Hugh’s field trip to the Ethiopian slaughterhouse. According to David, “when in told such stories, it’s all I can do to hold back jealously. An Ethiopian slaughterhouse. Some people have all the luck”(Sedaris19). The entire story gives special importance to Hugh’s “lucky life,” from a slaughterhouse, to a dictator’s bloody bedroom, and the death of the man in the telephone pole outside the movie theater. David compares every moment to his, and craves to replace his life with the one Hugh had. He finishes the story with an understanding of his fortune and how many people would want what he had. He had finally appreciated his life.