Barry's Tips for Women

This week’s readings covered a wide range of topics from relationship advice, to vowel deployment, and finally the struggles of a fashionably challenged man. The most entertaining of the three was Barry’s Tips for Women: How to Have a Relationship with a Guy. This story was amusing and educational because although he exaggerated, much of what Barry said was spot on. It gave men and women a chance to laugh at themselves and take a look into the one place they will never truly understand, the mind of the opposite sex. Barry establishes a satirical tone for the story right from the start using cognitive shift when he says it’s easy to have a good relationship with a guy as long as that guy is a golden retriever.

He goes on to spell out the story a Roger and Elaine, a couple who has been dating for six months. As Barry narrates back and forth between the thoughts of Roger and Elaine, the readers see that Elaine is over analyzing every single word, action, gesture, and movement that Roger makes and Roger is off in his own world thinking about his car. Elaine goes home and talks to her friends for hours to further analyze the situation while Roger goes home and eats Doritos. During their conversation in the car, one of the funniest remarks made by Barry is when Roger is relieved to finally know the answer to one of Elaine’s questions.  I’ve had similar experiences talking to friends or a girlfriend where I was relieved to get even one of the questions “right” or understand what they’re even asking.

Barry is somewhat critical of men’s thoughts about relationships but not all men think the same way. Although it’s rare, I have known guys who completely overthink their relationship and analyze every single thing.  If both people in the relationship over analyze everything, things can get complicated and blown out of perspective very easily.  So in some cases it is good to have someone in the relationship that doesn't think too hard about it.

For me the most entertaining part of the story was the mental condition that causes men to fear commitment: “The fear that if you get attached to a woman, some unattached guy, somewhere, will be having more fun than you.” Once again this is not true for all guys, but for most guys that pretty much says it all. Even though they are far happier in the relationship than they would be if they weren't  they tend to think that the grass is always greener somewhere else. They feel like a kid trapped in school watching through the window as all the other kids get to go outside and play. Barry uses exaggerations like this throughout the story which make it entertaining and drive home the point that men and women think differently about relationships.

Vacation '58

John Hughes story of a disastrous family vacation was my favorite story so far from the semester. He was able to capture the irony of most family vacations almost perfectly. Even though vacations are meant to be a chance to relax and have a little fun, family vacations can often have the opposite effect. Many of the most memorable experiences of my childhood occurred on family vacations, both good and bad.  Hughes story started out relatable, as the Griswolds suffered several everyday setbacks. The car was having trouble, Mrs. Griswold might have left the oven on, and of course everyone was hungry or had to go to the bathroom. This average beginning sets up his readers nicely for the rest of the story. Just as they start to compare their own vacation nightmares to those in the story, things go ridiculously downhill in a hurry. Hughes employs exaggeration to really drive home the idea of a disaster vacation.

The situations become worse and worse and so does Clark Griswolds ability to handle them. By the time they have reached California he has robbed a motel, left a relative for dead, and outrun the police. One of the funniest things about Clark’s behavior is the disconnect between his actions and his words. He continues to say positive things about the vacation and remark about how well everything is going even though his decisions become more violent and reckless as the story progresses. Some of my favorite parts of the story are the small glimpses of optimism Hughes puts into the story such as “a glorious desert sunset bathed the tow truck.” I was also particularly amused with the family’s visit to Joshua Tree National Park. Clark makes the family get out of the car and gives them the grand tour. He just says “See…that’s a Joshua tree” and they all get back in the car and continue down the road.

The exaggeration and action reaches a peak when Clark absolutely goes crazy and shoots Walt Disney. It had been foreshadowed at the beginning of the story but I was reluctant to believe it at the beginning. I think the superiority theory could also help explain why this story is so funny. First it makes us think of our own disaster vacations then proceeds to show us things could have been worse, a lot worse. We can now laugh at our own vacations because we are relieved they weren’t as bad as the cross country odyssey the Griswolds endured.