Faced With The Challenge Of Explaining The Cornerstone Of Christianity PDF

Preview

Summary

Journal Questions on the Jesus Shaves story ...

Description

Desai 1 Sachi Desai Professor Patashnik English 1202 DE 5 October 2016 Jesus Shaves Questions 1. The characters within the short story “Jesus Shaves” all play an important role. The teacher portrays the all-knowing aspect of a character. She knows about all the Frenchrelated things, and she even seems to claim that she knows what one does on Easter. She asks the class who brings the chocolate on Easter Day, and the narrator, whom is also the author, states that it is “The Rabbit of Easter” (Sedaris 22). Since he is American and a Christian, a reader can make the assumption that he would know exactly how Easter is celebrated. When they discuss their beliefs on how Easter is celebrated, the teacher does not even back up her point which is ironic if she is a teacher. On the other hand, the Moroccan woman does not understand the whole concept and way of celebrating Easter. Lastly, the Italian student brings up about what one eats on Easter, which was way far out of reach than what the narrator wanted to talk about. He states, “Faced with the challenge of explaining the cornerstone of Christianity, we did what any self-respecting group of people might do. We talked about food instead” (Sedaris 19). This shows a language and religion based barrier between all the characters and other classmates in the room. 2. The dialogue in the story represents broken French and the biases of the narrator allow the reader to receive a better understanding of what is taking place in the classroom. A discussion is taking on how one person does something, for example, celebrate Easter. This shows the overall distinction of what the characters in the story believe in and with

Desai 2 such language barriers like the Moroccan woman, it is difficult for her to understand the concept of Easter when the teacher and the narrator do not even agree with each other. The narrator even says, “Nothing we said was of any help to the Moroccan student” (Sedaris 30). The teacher, being the all-knowing stereotypical teacher believes that the chocolate is brought by a big bell whereas the narrator, believes the Rabbit of Easter brings the chocolate. These are two different beliefs being discussed in a French classroom. This could also send a message trying to convey readers to be respectful of how one portrays things. 3. The idea of faith plays a huge role as well in this story. When the narrator says he believes the Rabbit of Easter is the one who brings the chocolate, the teacher interjects. She immediately says, “No, no,” …. “Here in France the chocolate is brought by the big bell that flies in from Rome” (Sedaris 26). This symbolizes each of the character’s faith in their religion. They do not agree with each other at the end of the story, in fact, the narrator makes it even more clear of how faithful he is to his belief. He claims, “A bell, though, that’s fucked up” (Sedaris 31). Then, when they ask each other how does a bell or the rabbit know where one lives, the narrator backs up his faith in more detail. He gives comedic responses such as saying, “the Easter Bunny has character, he’s someone you’d like to shake hands with. A bell has all the personality of a cast-iron skillet” (Sedaris 29). By stating this, he is fluently talking about his belief and faith towards a subject, but yet, the teacher does not abide to this. Further, the Moroccan woman is even more confused, but the narrator even wonders that if without the language barrier his classmates would be able to understand Christianity better. While this could be true, he still sticks to his faith towards God and why he believes the Easter Bunny is the one who brings the chocolate.

Desai 3 4. Behind all the comedic and paced dialogue, Sedaris sends a deeper message to his

readers. He wants the reader to be able to come to the ultimate conclusion that there is much more to learning about a tradition or certain religion than just knowing what one does on that holiday. He does emphasis the word faith in his story often, which is a huge part of his message. He recognizes that since there is such a distinct language barrier among his classmates, it is difficult to teach them about Christianity, but he knows he is not wrong for trying to. Sedaris also is trying to convey to the reader that faith is the only true thing that matters when speaking about a religion or just any holiday, not just basic facts such as who brings the chocolate on Easter....