David Barry’s Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out: SOAPSTone

Subject:

The subject of Dave Barry’s Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out is that men think, act, and perceive things much differently than women do. The differences between the men and women are illustrated through Dave Barry’s use of historical and personal examples to distinguish between how men and women perceive things such as ‘dirt’ and ‘sports.’

Occasion:

Barry’s Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out was written during 1988. The essay’s time of creation is illustrated by the date written in the introduction when the writer of the article states that “this essay [is] from Dave Barry’s Greatest Hits (1988).” The date in quotations tells the date the article was written. The probably place of the essay’s creation is either in New York or Pennsylvania, as the article states Barry’s place of birth as “Armonk, New York” and that he went to “Haverford College” which is located in Pennsylvania – state right next to New York. The time and place of the essay influence the subject matter in how a major topic of the essay is the differences between men and women in regards of sports, specifically baseball. Baseball was a rising surge in America in the late 1980’s especially in states like New York, so that most likely influenced the subject matter.

Audience:

Dave Barry’s audience for Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out is the male population – specifically the stereotypical masculine male persona. The author’s target audience is exhibited by his word choice. This is exemplified when the author states the stereotypical idea that women have less of an interest in sports than men. If this article was written for women he would have left this bias view out as, as he said in the article, many women “are [as] sensitive to sports” as men. As well it is exhibited in how he makes very stereotypical statements of men in how they are all interested in sports and have no eye for cleanliness like women – an attribute stereotypically associated with the more masculine men of society.

Purpose:

Dave Barry’s purpose in Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out is to justify why men and women think, act, and perceive things differently and to achieve understanding by the female population. His purpose to achieve justification and understanding is revealed when Mr. Barry talks about the biological perspective as to why men cannot see dirt as well as women, in stating that “a hormonal secretion takes place in women that enables them to see dirt that men cannot see, dirt at the level of molecules, whereas men don’t generally notice it until it forms clumps large enough to support agriculture.” The author is justifying why men cannot clean as well as women in providing the biological standpoint as to say that men can physically not clean as well as women because of genetics. Furthermore, the author illustrates his desire for understanding in providing an excuse for atrocious male housework through fact and not opinion, therefore it cannot be disputed and the reader has no choice but to achieve understanding.

Speaker:

Dave Barry, journalist and humorist, believes that any perfectly ordinary experienced may be rendered for every ounce of humor.  This value is illustrated by his use of humor in the most odd of places such as when he says a situation he was in was “exactly like that story by Edgar Allan Poe where the murderer can hear the victim’s heart beating louder and louder even though he is dead, until finally he can’t stand it anymore, and he just has to watch the World Series on television.” It is humor like this that the author juices out of seemingly ordain essays to make his articles master pieces.

Tone:

The author exhibits a humorous and stereotypical attitude about why men think, act, and perceive things differently than women do in Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out. These attitudes are expressed through his use of exclamatory, exaggeratory, and stereotypical tone words and phrases. His use of exclamation points exhibits his exclamatory tone, his uses of phrases like “ the men’s room had bacteria you could enter in a rodeo” displays his exaggeratory tone, and his use of phrases such as “ [Sports] is an area where men tend to feel very sensitive and women tend to be extremely callous,” illustrates his stereotypical tone.