Us and Them
Tariq Alshereiqi
Meagan Lobnitz
3 September 2020
The excerpt “Us and Them by Davis” by Sedaris has featured two families within the same vicinity though leading a diverse way of life. The author has mastered the art of elucidation to a greater extent, for he is seen shedding light on the relationship that their family and Tomkey have. At first, the author illustrates that the only common factor that the duo had is neighborhood. The author points out well that they had moved in this area recently and since they were not to spend much of their time here, and hence the defiance of making more friends from their mother.
Nevertheless, the mother became friends with one of the neighbors who discussed Tomkey’s plight with the author’s mother during a visit. At this point, the author learned the absence of a television in the Tomkey’s house. This issue so perturbed the author, and more often, he wound wonder how a family living in the contemporary world lacks such a vital technological gadget. However, the bone of contention was why Mr. Tomkeys’ hold on to his belief on having not a television at the expense of his family. All along, from home to school the author is seen to have been taking a close follow up on The Tomkey’s existence not until the night after Halloween. The author has it that it was during this fateful day that the family came into their house and requested for candy, something that made him (Sedaris) lose his pity upon them for he had to lose some of his valuables to them. Before this the author had explained how he would sneak in the Tomkey’s compound and he would peer through Tomkeys’ window(Sedaris,720), trying to get a glimpse of how their evenings were without a TV.
Sedaris, David. Us And Them. 6th ed., Ryan Kapp, 2020, pp. 718-724, https://www.hasd.org/faculty/ThomasKraus/Us%20and%20Them.pdf. Accessed 4 Sept 2020.