Assignment 8: Dave Cooks the Turkey

The short story of "Dave Cooks the Turkey", by Stewart Mclean, is a hilarious story of an everyday dad who is told, by his wife, to cook the Christmas turkey, a skill that many men lack. Throughout the story Stewart Mclean uses three techniques of humour to express himself. The three techniques include blunder, caricature, and satire. Blunder is wit based on a person who makes a mistake, which makes them appear foolish. This technique is used many times throughout the story. Dave appears foolish infront of his wife when she caught him saying 'uh oh'. "I thought 'uh oh,'" said Dave. "I didn't say 'uh oh.' Thinking 'uh oh' isn't like saying 'uh oh.' They don't send you to jail for thinking you want to strangle someone." "What?" said Morley. (Pg. 7) Another humorous technique that was used was caricature, which is an exaggeration of a person's mental, physical, or personality traits, in wisecrack form. Caricature is used when Dave is complaining about what his wife does in her spare time explaining that "They drank tea, or beer, and the host baked something, and they worked on stuff." (Pg. 5) Lastly, satire was used throughout the story. Satire is wit that is critical humor including sarcasm, that makes fun of something. For example, Dave thinks, "Oh. Great, I'll get the drinks", when he notices that Jim and his mother were coming over for super. Because Dave did not want Jim and his mother to come over he sarastically told his wife that he'll prepare the drinks, when the truth is that was the last thing he wanted to do. In conclusion, Dave is someone who has wit, exaggeration, and sarcasm which was presented in the story in the forms of blunder, caricature, and satire.

Assignment 7- Narrative Essay: Certain experiences mark the beginning of maturity

I was born with something called atopic dermatitus, also known as eczema. Growing up, it never occured to me that I was different than other children, I was who I was and I believed that eczema made me Me. I was included by others; as long as you could play tag you were in the group. As I began to grow older, and started school, it only became worse and I realized that I looked different than others and they saw me as that. My parents told me that I was special, just in who I was, and that there was a reason for why it was me this had happened to, but I didn't beleive them.

When I was 11 my family and I moved to Pentiction . By the teen years my eczema started to worsen and my parents began to send me to a local dermatologist. The dermatologist had never seen a case as bad as mine so he immediatly sent me to one in Kelowna, who almost couldn't handle it himself. Treatement didn't work; the dermatologists couldn't uncover what was triggering my breakouts and told me that it was something I was going to live with. In grade nine I was excited to start high school in a new place but I was only stared at as others wondered what was wrong with me. I began to become very insecure and felt I needed to cover up with jeans and heavy hoodies. In the summer I would rarely go to the beach, and when I did I was stopped and asked by people if I had been attacked by an animal or fallen into a rasberry bush.

I began to believe that outward beauty meant everything and felt it was something I was definetly lacking. As time carried on I decided to become home schooled, as the dermatologist thought it may be stress that made it worse. As I grew older and began to mature and find myself, I realized that it doesn't matter what people think of you and you are only wasting time worrying about what others are saying or thinking. It was when I came to that point of confidence in myself when my eczema went away. Dermatologists say it was something I just grew out of, I also belive it was something that happened to make me a strong, confident person.

Through my experience I have learned not to care what others think of me and I can now understand others with insecurities and problems. Right now I teach a girl's group called "Beautiful Girl" for middle school girls where we learn the importance of inner beauty and self confidence. I am glad that this experience has happened to me because I have matured so much through it and it has made me confident in who I am and that is something that nothing can take away.