Sedaris would have written this story to show the frequent delays
while traveling through airports and the weird conversation and arguments that
go along with it. Also not everyone has experienced flight and Sedaris could
use this to show some of his experiences while using airports as a mode of
transportation. For example “2003 when the flight attendant asked us to pray
for our troops in Iraq” (Sedaris 275). He talks about how this was weird and a
first time he has ever heard this on an airplane. Most people have very stereo
typical thoughts on flying that you go to a building walk through a tunnel and
you hop in an airplane, Sedaris shows that there is more to flying then what
meets the eye.
Sedaris didn’t just write this for his pleasure he wanted
his audience to receive a message about airports. Sedaris hoped that readers
would feel that airports are strange places: Places you don’t want to spend a
long time in but sometimes you have no choice. While explaining airports he
uses very descriptive and offensive languages. The main message he is trying to
tell his audience is to not make weird conversations in airport because the
make people around you judge and think negatively about you as he is doing in
Standing By.
Throughout David Sedaris’s Standing By, he question himself
and ethics. The starts of by questioning flight attendant’s how do they handle
problems and what are some tips and tricks they use while flying; he also
questions why some people strike conversations in an airport waiting lounge.
Not only does he question the conversation he questions the ethics of each one.
The main thing Sedaris is puzzled about is why he is flying overall. After the bad
and weird experience he has had you think he wouldn’t fly, he says it makes him
go brain dead.
Sedaris, David.”Standing By.”First year Composition
Reader.Boston:Pearson,2011.275-277.Print.
