“Big Boy”

In the narrative “Big Boy”, David Sedaris expresses his tone towards an aspect of life through his use of powerful diction. In the story, Sedaris tells of an unexpected incident he encounters in a friend’s bathroom. The author’s tone toward this event is embarrassed and also annoyed. Sedaris’s first comment on the business left in the toilet was “the absolute biggest piece of work I have ever seen.” This quote expresses his annoyance with the major problem Sedaris knows he has to deal with. Sedaris’s first sign of embarrassment was when he said, ” My whereabouts were public knowledge.” The author is paranoid because he doesn’t want everyone to think that the business was left by him. Sedaris also says there was no way he was going to “take the rap” for the business left. This incident was way too embarrassing for Sedaris to own up to someone else’s problem.

As Sedaris continued to struggle, he constantly thought that it “wasn’t fair” and “not my job.” This exemplified Sedaris’s annoyance with his situation and how he was aggravated by cleaning up someone else’s mess. In the end when everything was settled, Sedaris began to “examine the suspects” because he was annoyed with everything he just had to go through for someone else’s mess.