“COOKIES” BY DOUGLAS ADAMS
“Cookies” by Douglas Adams is an anecdotal story. He recalls an incident that took place at a train station in Cambridge during 1976 while waiting he was waiting for a train. Adams tells the story by making use of humour and a conversational tone and comments on the culture and behaviour that British men possess in general
Adams arrives early at the train station because had gotten the time of his train wrong. He buys a cup of coffee, newspaper and a packet of cookies. He takes a seat at a table opposite of a businessman. After a while the man leans forward, takes the packet of cookies, tears it open and eats one. In his story, Adams explains how he (as an Englishman) does not know how to cope with this type of a situation and therefore takes a cookie himself. A minute later, the man takes another cookie and so does Adams. This procedure continues until the packet is empty. Finally the man leaves and they exchange meaningful expressions. When the train arrives, Adams gets up, takes his newspaper and discovers underneath it – his packet of cookies! This is quite hilarious because the businessman probably felt the exact same as Adams except he had right to since Adams had been eating his cookies.
The use of conversational tone by Adams in this anecdotal is effective. It resembles a conversation as if he is directly addressing the reader. For example, the ‘you’ in “I want you to picture this scene” (Adams,1976;26) is involving the reader and therefore creating intimacy. He assumes common knowledge and this is evident when Adams says that, “You know what would happen if this had been South Central Los Angeles”. The story also seems more realistic because Adams acknowledges himself in the story – “This actually did happen to a real person and the real person is me” and he makes known that this event has really happened. The reader feels as if they are actually there and part of the incident in the way Adams describes in detail the scene - “Here’s the table, newspaper, cup of coffee, packet of cookies”. He also expresses his shock and bewilderment by emphasising his point in detail by saying how the man kept taking another cookie. At the ending of the story the humour is intensified and therefore making the conversational tone more effective. (Adams, 1976;27)
British men are thought to be courageous and someone who stands up for himself. Adams being a British man himself, indicates their weaknesses in a sarcastic manner by using the word “red-blooded Englishman” because he does not stand up for his rights like any other Englishmen would do, he just ignores it. He also compares British culture to American by stating that, “Now this I have to say, is the sort of thing the British are very bad at dealing with… What am I going to do” (Adams,1976;26), he exaggerates to emphasise what would have happened if it was in America and how they differ in culture. British masculinity cultures – British culture is so low for confrontation.
The way Adams wrote the story makes it humorous - Using humour and conversational tone. The comparison between British men and American is distinguished as well. A simple packet of cookies creates so much sense of emotion and confusion through both men resulting in only one of them having the punch line.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
From Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time. (New York: Pan Books, 2003), pp 150-51.