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Jesus Shaves By David Sedaris

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Is there truly one simple way to explain a religion? Which opinion is right and which one is wrong? These are the types of questions that you, or anyone else, might ask when trying to describe your religious beliefs. “Jesus Shaves” is a short humorous story by David Sedaris, an American author and comedian. He is characterized for writing stories with a lot of humor and “Jesus Shaves” is no exception, but he also writes these type of stories with a deeper meaning behind the jokes. This story revolves around the students trying to explain their religious or cultural view on a specific holiday, Easter in this case. The narrator is assumed to be an American student which alters the reader’s view of the story, but this does not take from the fact …show more content…

This aspect is carried through the comparison and contrast of the religious beliefs that are seen and explained by each of the students in the class; Polish, Italian, Moroccan, American, French, etc. This aspect is more noticeable when all of the students are faced with a question that has to do with Easter. Throughout the entire essay the idea of religion and culture are held by the concept of trying to explain the holiday to the Moroccan student. These small characters each play a different roll in trying to express how there are different opinions toward the same concept. The decision to include these characters is for the reader to be able to understand that the other cultures do not recognize the same religious traditions, it could be the same tradition, but since it’s a different religion or culture it could be composed of different aspects. For example, if the reader is a Christian then he/she will understand a certain point of view. Easter is, according to Meriam Webster Dictionary: “a Christian church festival that celebrates the return of Jesus Christ to life following his death”. Despite it being an important tradition to all Christians, here is this Moroccan student who hasn’t even heard of it, which proves that no matter how important you can consider a holiday it is essential to you because it is what you were taught and we …show more content…

Sedaris expresses this through the characters also, but he mostly through dialogue. The dialogue taking place is meant to express that the characters are obviously speaking a broken French and are struggling to make an interpretation of Easter. Besides the fact that all the students come from around the globe the majority of them are not fluent in French and have different interpretations toward the same concept that is Easter, which means that it’s not enough that each of them have a personal opinion on what the holiday means, but trying to interpret it using another language is what the author calls “a sad attempt to bestow knowledge on the Moroccan student.” The idea of a holiday doesn’t just depend on your background, it depends more on your personal opinion and how well you are able to understand it and explain it to someone else. This is better seen in the story when the narrator says: “I wondered then if without the language barrier my classmates and I could have done a better job of making sense of Christianity, an idea that seems pretty far-fetched to begin with.” So not only does your background and

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