Implicit Assumptions

     Throughout the piece "Me talk Pretty Now", Sedaris uses mockery to bring attention to humiliation of people caused by their inability to speak a language. Sedaris uses the French professor as a stand in for everyday native speakers of a language and how they may humiliate or alienate non-native speakers because they can't understand them. The language barrier and struggle between a native and non-native speaker in communication leads to bullying, isolation, and humiliation. Sedaris portrays this through the use of exaggeration and humor. Revealing an underlying theme of prejudice and bigotry held against others, simply due to a struggle in communication. 

    In an animated film I recently watched, A Silent Voice, a similar struggle is seen. As a girl in elementary school, Shouko is constantly ridiculed and bullied by her classmates because of the fact that she's deaf. To communicate with her classmates, she uses a notebook, writing messages for them to read. Her peers make rude remarks, and mock her whilst she can't hear them. Shoya, one of her classmates, gave her an especially hard time. Continually complaining about being unable to understand what she says, and refusing to communicate through her notebook. Later, when they attempt to teach the class sign language to better communicate with Shouko, the rest of her classmates express their displeasure. Complaining that  they should not be inconvenienced just so that they can communicate with her. Shouko was isolated by her peers, ridiculed, and constantly bullied each day, for the sole reason that they simply couldn't understand her. She couldn't speak properly and was unable to be understood by her peers, so they belittled her and bullied her until she transferred schools.

    This setup for a movie develops the same idea that Sedaris portrays. Sedaris uses the example of non-native speakers being isolated and ridiculed by a French teacher, whereas A Silent Voice uses an example of  a deaf girl bullied by her classmates. Both pieces use the setting of a classroom to help illustrate these ideas. It pushes the audience to reflect on themselves on larger ideas regarding language and speech, and how we use it as a form of manifesting our own bigotry, making assumptions about others and judging them on their ability to communicate with us alone.