Austin Grooms
Mrs.Abigial Hickman
Essay Prompt One
English 111 YD5

Santaland Diares is as essay wrote by David Sedaris. It is a humorous account of Sedaris stint working as a Christmas elf in Sanaland at Macy’s Department store. Sedaris reads the essay on a National Public Radio’s Morning on December 23, 1992. Christmas time can be a very stressful time of the year. David uses evidence, ethos, logos and pathos to argue that Christmas may not be as enjoyable as it appears. David uses evidence to support that Christmas may not be as enjoyable as it appears. He talks about how stressful and how it is a difficult time if the year. Sedaris said, “Today, I witnessed fistfights and vomiting and magnificent tantrums.”(Paragraph 7). This example shows how Christmas is not always fun. David states, “Tonight I saw a women slap and shake her crying child. She yelled: Rachel, get on the man’s lap and smile or I’ll give you something to cry about.”(Paragraph 22 ). This show support that Christmas may not always be filled with fun and excitement. The picture captured the smiling child on Santa lap with elves and it appeared like nothing was wrong. But in reality the child was just crying right before the picture was taken. All of these examples show that even though the pictures looked perfect and sweet doesn’t mean the child was an angle before or after the picture was taken. David Sedaris uses ethos in Santaland Diaries . David was born on December 26, 1956 in Binghamton, New York. Which is one day after the joyful holiday? David Raymond Sedaris is an American Grammy Award- Nominated humorist, comedian, author and radio contributor. He was publicity recognized in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcasted his essay “ Sanaland Diaries”. By 2008 his book had sold seven million copies. Most of Sedaris humor is autobiographical, self-departing and often concerns his family life, and his middle class upbringing. He is well-known writer that uses humor to make fun of society and relates his stories to all different types of people. David Sedaris writes this story in a narrative form. David writes this in step by step to paint a picture of what’s going on. By using humor he makes Santaland sound fun and exciting instead of depressing and boring. He uses narrative form because he talks about personal and his life to the audience so he can relate to them. He uses sarcasm to be able to explain in more depth. David states, “I wear green velvet kickers, a forest green velvet smock and a perky little hat decorated with spangles. This is my work uniform.”(paragraph 3). He is using sarcasm to explain how ridiculous he looks in the uniform he is forced to wear. David Sedaris directs the story towards the working force. He directs it towards them because this story illustrates how he hates his job. He talks about in depth about every single piece of the uniform to explain how ridiculous he looks. He talks about all the customers that made complaints on him. He is trying to state that a job could always be worse like wearing a elf custom in “Santaland”. He writes it for the work force because he can relate and say he’s in the same position. He uses comedy to make it sound a lot better than it actually is in “Santaland”. David Sedaris uses evidence, ethos, logos and pathos to argue that Christmas may not be as enjoyable as it appears to be. David uses humor, comedy, and sarcasm to explain “Santaland” threw the elf’s eyes at Mac’s department store. David talks about this experience so he can relate to people and explain it could always be worse. David does a great job in keeping the audience entertained.

Work Cited
Sedaris, David. “SantaLand Diaries.” Host Steven Inskeep, All Things Considered. National Public Radio. December 1992. MP3 File. Retrieved 02 January 2014.