SOAPSTONE of Battling Clean-Up and Striking Out

Subject: The subject of Dave Berry's Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out is about getting humor out of the simple family life that he lives. He illustrated it through examples of his normal family life, and the things that people don't notice that they are going through as they do it. He is pointing out the obvious that others don't really notice, and this is humorous in the way he does it. His word choice, and casual tone make it an easy, fun read.

Occasion: Observing events that have occurred to the speaker regarding the differences of women and men, and the obviousness that people can't seem to observe. This was created probably on a Monday reflecting the weekends events in a time near the world series. He portrayed this to us by using his story about the world series game, and evening talk session. This proves that he was reflecting the events because he was speaking in past tense about the events that have recently occurred.

Audience: This article is for the specific audience of men who fail to recognize the obvious things that they will do on a daily basis in their family unit. He revealed his audience when he explained how he gets angry letters from female readers when he talks about their uncaring about sports. His general audience is adult people in a family unit that could use this to sympathize with their differences in observations and feelings over certain subjects. This is shown through his example of cleaning the bathroom, and the struggles every family goes through.

Purpose: His purpose is to explain the normal, obvious differences between men and women in a family setting. He wants the audience to be more tolerable of these differences, and he wants to give the reader a good laugh. He illustrates this through all of his examples specifically when he is describing the main differences between men and women in certain circumstances.

Speaker: The speaker is the author of the article, Dave Berry. In this article he is just a normal dad in a normal family going through the normal issues that are caused by the differences of men and women in a relationship. He believes that certain biological make up causes conflict and differences in some families, and takes a humorous spin on the situation. This is shown through his examples primarily of the cleaning the bathroom. Barry also believes that men care differently for certain things then women. Women view dirt as a bad thing, and don't care too much about sports, whilst men care loads about sports, but not about dirt all too much. This again is proved through the whole essay when he describes the dinner party/world series issue, and the cleaning the bathroom example as well.

Tone: Dave Berry shows and articulates a sarcastic, humorous tone towards this topic. He shows this through his word choices in his examples, and the organization of events when he is describing his predicaments. He uses casual word choice and because of this he comes across as quite funny.