After a few paragraphs and as the text starts to go on, the author starts to feel intimidated and nervous as the reality he faced, was different from the imagination he had. “The first day of class was nerve-wracking”. The author felt nervous and intimidated due to expectations that he had as he used to feel optimistic, and then suddenly facing the reality and how difficult and hard his journey is going to be. “I realized while laughing, that I myself did not know the alphabet”, that is the moment when the author started to seriously get nervous as he felt intimidated due to his lack of experience in the French language. 

That tone of intimidation and nervousness created a concerned mood to be reflected at the audience, as at that point, that audience who are probably in a new phase in their lives and/or are risk takers, will start to realize how expectations do not always meet reality 

 

At the end of this text, the author felt accomplished after all he’s been through. He finally understood what his teacher was saying. “The world opened up, and it was with great joy that I responded” this emphasizes the feeling that the author conveyed throughout his choice of words, which is the feeling of accomplishment. As the author felt accomplished, the audience begins to feel motivated as they start to feel that even if those audiences are middle-aged and/or risk takers, they could always make the best out of each bad situation to turn it to their advantage and benefit from it. Just like the author, the audience will feel like the “world opened up” and they will welcome their obstacles and life challenges with confidence and the belief of getting accomplished. 

“Me Talk Pretty One Day’ by David Sedaris has an evolving tone that follows through with the events that the author describes within his memoir. With a constant development of tone, a constant shift in mood is experienced by the audience. The tone begins as optimistic which is shown through the quote “I’ve moved to Paris with hope of learning the language” as well as “I arrived Early...”. The authors description of events allows the audience to feel excited, remembering an event similar to David’s’ or a time when they felt optimistic and how exciting it was. This links to the social context of this memoir being that the author is starting a new chapter of his life. The tone then shifts to sarcasm which is witnessed through to his description of Anna, she “had front teeth the size of tomb stones”. As the tone shifts to being sarcastic the mood of the audience shifts as they begin to find the memoir humorous through the authors use of multiple similes, metaphors and hyperboles. For example, when the author writes “the coming months...a wild animal” and “Every day spent...a caesarean section” he appears to link the events that take place within the text to those that his audience who are middle aged Americans may have already experienced and causes humour through using metaphors and similes that are well known throughout American creating a cultural link in the text. Finally the tone of the text ends with the author feeling accomplished of learning the French language enough to finally understand everything that the teacher is saying. A quote proving this is “for the first time......someone was saying”. This has an impact on the audience as it is noted he started off with an abundance of difficulties and now having reached a step that he thought he might never reach, motivates the audience to keep going and no matter what adversity gets in your way, you are able to make it through and achieve your goal just like David did when he was faced with a cruel teacher. Thus, it is clear that the tone within David Sedaris’ “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is ever evolving which in turn leads to the audience experiencing an emotional rollercoaster of the events experienced by the author from a different perspective. 

   The author utilizes language to simultaneously to develop his own character and project tone in order to more effectively and clearly show the audience his current stance on a given situation. Early in the text the author is ridiculed by the teacher for associating the incorrect gender with a specific object; “I absorbed as much of her abuse as I could understand, thinking – but not saying – that I find it ridiculous to assign a gender to an inanimate object which is incapable of disrobing and making an occasional fool of itself.”. Here, his sarcasm is displayed in its fullest effect, yet at the same time, it shows what he thinks about the French language, and as a result, the teacher. Here, the mood becomes sympathetic, as the audience can understand the authors struggle, as they too are middle aged Americans who don’t have to deal with associating gender with inanimate objects; they can only image how hard it must be for the author.

However, the shame the author experiences in that specific instance becomes more and more commonplace— forcing him to start taking French more seriously in order to avoid being insulted. The sarcasm is replaced by intimidation; “After being singled out as a lazy kfdtinvfm, I took to spending four hours a night on my homework, putting in even more time whenever we were assigned an essay. I suppose I could have gotten by with less, but I was determined to create some sort of identity for myself: David, the hardworker, David the cut-up.”. The author attempts to nullify the insults received from his teacher, and he attempts to achieve this by increasing his knowledge of French so that he isn’t an easy target. All of the authors actions are being done out of fear of the teacher. Along with the shift in tone, the mood has split— now not only is it sympathetic towards the author, but also resentful towards the teacher for setting up the author through this viscous work routine. 

As the narrative progresses, the author, David Sedaris’ tone transitions from optimistic to sarcastic and then finally, accomplished. Consequently, the incorporation of such tones instigates a shift in the intended audience’s mood, evolving from eager to humorous and then eventually, motivated. The prevalence of tone is evident from the extensive utilization of visual imagery, diction and a steady development of sarcasm. At the beginning of the narrative, Sedaris conveys his optimism when he describes his move to Paris to be in ‘hopes of learning a new language’ and as he explains how he ‘arrived early, watching as the returning students greeted one another…..’. This vivid description of his own behavior as well as synonymizing his immigration with ‘hope’ allows the inference that he truly feels enthusiastic and optimistic in these unfamiliar surroundings. The niche audience, which is essentially middle-aged Americans attempting some sort of mid-life crisis, would find such a situation exciting and feel eager as the author begins his ‘adventure’. A shift in tone, however becomes apparent as Sedaris starts to struggle with his French teacher and the language itself. Both his annoyance and his disdain for his teacher are evident in his overly sarcastic tone. When she chastises him for making grammatical errors, he becomes hyperbolic and says her reaction was as if ‘these mistakes were capital crimes in the country of France’. Additionally, he asks sarcastic rhetorics like ‘Why refer to Lady Crack Pipe or Good Sir Dishrag when these things could never live up to all that their sex implied?’ Such a tone audience is allowed to see how his attitude changes as well as how naïve he initially was, eventually making them feel both sympathetic as well as humorous. 

 

The tone of the text transitions from optimistic to sarcastic and finally to accomplished, as the author narrates his experience of learning French with his cruel teacher. At the beginning of the memoir, the author uses quotes such as “I’ve moved to Paris with hopes of learning the language.” And “On the first day of class, I arrived early” in order to show the reader that he is excited to learn and eager to begin and attend the classes. At this point, the reader feels a level of excitement for the author. Perhaps the reader is in a similar situation and is going through a drastic change in their lives and can therefore connect to the authors experience. As the text progresses to the experiences within the classroom the authors tone changes drastically to intimidated when the teacher begins to harshly criticize the other students, this in turn introduces the authors sarcasm through quotes like “The teacher’s reaction led me to believe that these mistakes were capital crimes in the country of France.” Or “I absorbed as much of her abuse as I could understand, thinking – but not saying – that I find it ridiculous to assign a gender to an inanimate object which is incapable of disrobing and making an occasional fool of itself.” These quotes highlight that though the teacher was incredibly rude, even the author could find an underlying amusing side. By implying this, the author adds a more humorous mood for the reader as he talks about the abuse of the teacher. Within the final lines of Me Talk Pretty One Day, the author brings back the overall positive tone with a more accomplished feeling, this is seen when the author finally understands what the teacher has said to him and responds with “The world opened up, and it was with great joy that I responded “I know the thing that you speak exact now. Talk more, you, plus, please, plus.” The author almost uses this response as a way to motivate and encourage the reader with the theme that though criticism is harsh and severe at times, it is a powerful tool in education. Furthermore, the use of the above quotes throughout the text links to the tone and mood of the memoir with connections to the social and cultural context of the text as well.