Response to: David Sedaris: "Consider the Stars"

Sedaris begins the philsophical journey of "Consider the Stars" by thinking back to a "Labor Day celebration at the Raleigh Country Club" where he overheard a group of sixth graders discussing the "celebrity circles" of their junior high school. Shocked by this, Sedaris comments on how a young him went "into a mild shock" upon hearing their conversation. For, in the young David's head, it had "simply never occurred to [him] that other schools might have their own" social circles. Reflecting on his own school's "popular crowd", Sedaris describes their characteristics and "power". A power so complete "that [he] actually felthonored when one of them hit [him] in the mouth with a rock". This encounter with a boy by the name of Thad Pope leads the narrator to further explain this anecdote. When Thad hit David, it caused damage to his teeth, causing him to need a root canal. This was something David's father, much to his son's dismay, felt should be paid for by the assaulting party. A meeting is set up with the Pope family, and Sedaris is very surprised to see that "Thad was full capable of operating independently" without his group of "special" students. Young David insists that the injury was caused by his own stupidity and out of no malicious intent on Thad's part. He eventually comes to the conclusion that he and his dad do not belong around the Pope's. Sedaris even goes so far as to blame his father for he himself not fitting in; saying "You don't belong here. More precisely, I decided that he was the reason I didn't belong." Eventually, the Pope's "agreed to pay for half the root canal" because, Sedaris believes, "they wanted us out of their house." The next day, at lunch, David makes an attempt to approach Thad and give his sincerest apology, only to be shut down. The whole encounter with David and his father was "so far beneath him that it hadn't even registered." Sedaris goes on to explain how things began changing after junior high. Desegregation had a large impact on the way high school cliques were sorted. It even so happened that Thad was jumped by a group of new black students "early in [their] junior year", although, Sedaris found, he had an odd sympathy/worship in his heart for Thad Pope. He tells the reader how he clapped longer for Thad at graduation and even found himself wondering about Thad and how his experiences would be at college or hoping that he would run into him in their now adult lives. In conclusion, Sedaris comments on him constant reminder of Thad and junior high: his root canal. Something he eventually comes to describe as "a little misunderstanding between friends".

            Cliques suck. That is what I got from this essay. To be honest, I feel like everyone I talk to these days has had some problem, at some point in their life, with being the odd man out or being bullied. Although, I had a great middle and high school experience, the road getting there was awful. I was extremely bullied in elementary school. I have always been a "no nonsense" kind of girl, and lets just say, the girls in my elementary school class were full of all kinds of nonsense. They were petty and backbiting and I couldn't deal with it. Not to say I was some model child that was nice to everyone, but I feel as though, compared to these girls, I was. When the "popular" girls were mean, I would tell them. And those actions quickly got me off to the wrong foot with this clique. I found myself completely ostracized from the class. I worked alone on group projects, shot hoops by myself at recess, and joined many extracurriculars that were unaffiliated with my school. These were my saving grace. I found out then, that you didn't have to worry how people thought of you, especially in a small situation like the fifth grade. Reading this essay, I found myself hating Sedaris. The way he worshipped this "celebrity circle" disgusted me. When I was little and my mom told me to "not worry what others thought of me" I found solise in her words. Telling me those things saved me, and the way young Sedaris despised his father for encouraging him to be his own person caused me, as a reader, to have no sympathy for him and his unhappiness.

            Mine main question for Sedaris does not have to do with his writing style or use of language, it has to do with his feelings about his writing. Did he really worship Thad the way he described? Why did he feel so strongly that his father was wrong? Looking back on these events as an adult, does he believe that his father is right? Why did Sedaris include the details an emotions that he did? I also find myself wondering how this pondering over junior high drama ended up relating to his initial questions regarding the universe? Why did he choose to not return to his original thoughts?