Close Reading #3 - "Letting Go" by David Sedaris

Read it here!

David Sedaris's article "Letting Go" is all about giving up smoking, or, as a German woman he once met put it, "finishing" with smoking. Sedaris is all about the comedy so his anti-smoking message was pretty subtle but his use of certain techniques definitely created one.
His diction and detail created conflicting views of smoking, while he uses syntax everywhere for comedic affect. An example of his use of syntax is when he places the funniest part, or the punch line, at the end of the sentence. For example, he writes "... I went to the world's first elementary school, one where we wrote on cave walls and hunted our lunch with cubs." His use of diction and details demonstrate his feelings on smoking, some positive and some negative. He starts out by using words that contribute to good idea of cigarettes, calling them "wonderful" and a "godsend". He also talks about the bonding that takes place between fellow smokers. Cigarettes, he says, act as a "beacon" that "somehow bring [them] together", calling other smokers "[his] team". Other diction used later and vivid details show the flip side of smoking, the side that ultimately won the argument in Sedaris's mind.  He describes the effects of smoking, first on his uncle and later, his mother. His Uncle Dick had a "mucky" cough that was "painful sounding" and ultimately led to his death due to lung cancer. Later, his mother developed the same cough. He said that she would have to stop "every fifth step or so, while she wheezed and sputtered and pounded her chest with her fist" because the smoking had so damaged her lungs. She also died to lung cancer. By ending with these details and diction choices, Sedaris gives them the most weight, much the same way he puts the funniest part of the sentence at the end for maximum impact. He ends the essay with the day he quit smoking, following up the negative sides of smoking, subtly sending his audience an anti-smoking message.