Lost in the Kitchen Analysis

In Dave Barry's essay, Lost in the Kitchen, we are shown a humorous story about two men's ineptness at helping to prepare for their Thanksgiving dinner. However, as you look closer at the essay you find that the actual message the author is trying to convey is one of stereotypes, and how they appear everyday in our lives, even during the preparations for a simple Thanksgiving dinner. In order to convey this message he uses several strategies and techniques to draw our attention to the use of stereotypes in our lives and to help us better understand the point that he is trying to get across.

The main technique we find Dave Barry employing is the use of humor. Throughout this essay he focuses on keeping the tone light and humorous so as to entertain and yet still educate. We see him casually admitting his and others shortcomings as men and directing the humor at himself as he makes fun of his horrible behavior. In doing so, he makes this piece very easy for the reader to relate to; whether you are a woman who can sympathize with the other women in this essay as you, yourself, have had experience with men who have acted in much the same manner or you are a man who can easily relate to Dave Barry and his actions on Thanksgiving as you have acted in pretty much the same manner yourself.

Another strategy we find Dave Barry using is that of figurative language, which is imaginative language that compares one thing to another in ways that are not necessarily logical but that are nevertheless striking, original, and "true." Figurative language includes metaphors, similes and allusions. We see the use of this in the following statements, “…most men make themselves as useful around the kitchen as ill-trained Labrador retrievers (page 61).” and the statement, “I would no more enter that kitchen than I would attempt to park a nuclear aircraft carrier… (page 62)” and, “I realize this is awful. I realize this sounds just like Ozzie and Harriet (page 62).” All of these statements are being used to add to the stereotype about how useless men are in the kitchen and to enhance and get across his point that, well, these stereotypes are pretty much accurate and true.

Other techniques used include the use of assertion, which is a statement that a writer claims is true without necessarily providing objective support for the claim. This strategy can be seen in statements such as, "Men are still basically scum when it comes to helping out in the kitchen (page 61)." and, "I think most males rarely prepare food for others, when they do, they have their one specialty dish (spaghetti, in my case) that they prepare maybe twice a year in a very elaborate production, for which they expect to be praised as if they had developed, right there in the kitchen, a cure for heart disease (page 62)." These two statements are used to get across the point that men just aren't any good at helping out in a kitchen. He's not saying that's right, in fact he admits men are "scum" because of it, but he is trying to get across the point that these stereotypes do exist and are accurate.

Causal analysis is another rhetorical strategy that I observed being used. It examines the relationships between events or conditions and their consequences and can be seen at the end of the essay as Dave Barry talks about his and his wife's opinion on the issue. He states that, "Women do not make it easy to learn. Let's say a woman is in the kitchen...and the man...offers to help. So the woman says something like: "Well you can cut up the turnips." Now to the WOMAN, who had all this sexist Home Economics training back in the pre-feminism era, this is a very simple instruction. It is the absolute simplest thing she can think of (page 63)." However, his wife makes the point that, "Before Women’s Liberation, men took care of the cars and women took care of the kitchen, whereas now that we have Women’s Liberation, men no longer feel obligated to take care of the cars (page 63)."

In the end Dave Barry's humor was used to add to the simplicit tale of a Thanksgiving dinner. Through the use of rhetorical strategies and techniques he was able to talk about the issue of stereotypes without being overbearing. By making the piece light and humorous he was able to engage the reader and yet still make his point. Through acknowledging his own shortcomings he makes it easier for the reader because they can relate to his shortcomings instead of just being accused of their own. He reveals that stereotypes still exist even in his own life in a simple sentence that says, "This seemed pretty accurate to me, so I thought I'd just tack it on to the end here, while she makes waffles (page 63)."