Comparing Barry and Britt
Everyone knows someone who is extremely messy. Also everyone knows someone who is extremely neat. In Suzanne Britt’s essay “Neat people Vs. Sloppy” and Dave Barry’s “Batting clean-up and striking out” both authors write about a similar subject by dividing people into two categories. Both authors’ cover the same topic of cleanliness but go about it in a different fashion.
Both authors write about the subject of messiness and the difference between various people’s standard of that. Britt separates people into classes of neat and messy, while Barry finds the difference between the gender. Britt begins her essay by announcing that she has “finally figured out the difference between neat people and sloppy people” (Britt, 233). She overturns the traditional way the difference is seen by praising sloppy people and finding neat people immoral for their neatness.
Dave Barry looks at gender differences, in order to create to categories to explore. He ascribes women with the power to see dirt that men do not have. He writes “The primary difference between men and women is that women can see extremely small qualities of dirt” (Barry, 239).
Both authors have a point to make and they do so through humor. Britt and Barry have something to say about human nature and implicit to both is that there are different types of people who deal with issues of the world differently. For Barry, there are inescapable differences between men and women in their idea of what is important. For women, cleanliness and conversation is important, and for men watching a sport’s game is. For Britt there are differences between neat and sloppy people in what they value.
Every writer brings their own personality into their writing. Each author was able to write about a general thing and how it relates specifically to their way of thinking.
Works Cited:
Barry, Dave Batting Clean-up and Striking Out Kennedy, X. J., Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Jane E. Aaron. The Bedford reader. 10th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. Print.
Britt, Suzanne Neat People vs Sloppy PeopleKennedy, X. J., Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Jane E. Aaron. The Bedford reader. 10th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. Print.
