Michael Egan

4/8/16
Reflection Paper
Prof. Temple

Sedariss life in this short story is truly unique to say the least. Its rightfully titled A
plague of tics because not only does he have a constant need for odd actions, this chapter is
plagued with many questions for me, the reader. Around a quarter of the way through, I was
sitting here wondering what is the parents deal? Why are they blatantly ignoring the fact that
their son has something wrong with them?. As the story progressed, things seemingly got
clearer. Its difficult to explain how, so its useful to apply certain concepts to these characters in
order to better understand them. Such concepts include stereotypes, thing slicing, the negativity
bias, and the fundamental attribution error and more which is featured in the given text. With this
strategy, in addition to a summary of the story itself, I believe we can get an in-depth look at
what makes these characters tic and how they can be compared to real-world situations.
To start off, we have this young boy in this classroom communicating with his teacher in
Raleigh, N.C., who is introduced as Miss Chestnut. She is extremely perplexed, and probably
somewhat troubled (which is understandable) by the antics of this boy. His antics include licking
light switches and taking off his shoe to tap his forehead repeatedly. Its apparent no context is
really given to what the meaning of this is, so the teacher is just more confused, so she requests a
meeting with his mother in order to get a better understand of his behavior. Its important to note
that this teacher is snarky in her approach and not very subtle with her obvious distaste for his
actions. Once the setting changes, we get a much better look at what this boy does on a daily
basis and it gives some sort of answer to What is wrong?. Sedaris describes his walk home

which is specifically six-hundred and thirty seven steps away from his school. That same walk
home is plagued with stopping and going and stopping and going; the stopping consisting of
forgetting the amount of steps hes walked or touching mailboxes on the way home. While there
are other actions he undertakes, the trip home takes up to an hour and even then, hes not done
with the oddities. He must touch certain things and organize various objects around the house.
Youd think this is a severe case of ADD, but alas, this was before the knowledge of such mental
disorders. All of this comes to the dismay of his father (who is mentioned briefly and is a
severely harsh voice in his life) and the indifference to his mother, which raises other questions
based on her actions and personality. At this point in time, weve been introduced to his
immediate family and Miss Chestnut, one of many teachers who have approached the mother.
Some other small details include that they have just recently moved to North Carolina for his
fathers work, and these tics have seemingly come out of nowhere.
This boys father is mentioned briefly at first, and we have his first dialogue about
halfway through the story. He doesnt seem to be around very much, but when he is, he seems to
be verbally & physically abusive towards his son. One example of dialogue shows this abuse:
Hey sport, my father said, if youre trying to get a good look at the contents of your
skull, I can tell you right now that youre wasting your time. Theres nothing there to look at, and
these report cards prove it.
Another example we gain is in the car, where our main character has the urge to lick the
window shield, and the father just does not understand why his son has these urges. So in
response he threatens unknown violence if the action is repeated. Said violence comes in the
form of slamming on the brakes of the car, almost breaking his sons nose, but causing a nose
bleed. Since most would consider this a form of bullying, it brings the concept of negativity bias.

While this may not be the main archetype of the character, it is obvious his sons actions bring
much anger to him and it really derails his train of thought. When the father sees his son act in
this manner, there is no alarm that goes off and tells him to question it rather than abuse him.
While this is a fictional story, this is a very real issue amongst parents in the world. Its usually
used in the context of a parent not being ready to be a parent, but I view it as an adult not
knowing any levels of maturity. Rather than address something in a sensible way, their reaction is
solely and as a result, it irreversibly damages a young mind. For the greater portion of his
character, I can personally connect it to the concept of primacy effect.
Not only is it the father, but the mother as well. With the primacy effect, we have a
situation where a person will essentially judge a book by its cover. The father does not even try
to get to know his son during this ordeal, as he just insults him and takes him for what he is at
this present time period. Although the father demonstrates this concept, the mother carries this
archetype slightly as well. Her meetings with teachers seemingly go nowhere and all she cares
about his her cigarettes and liquor. Ultimately, she is a very confusing figure in this story. She is
obviously aware of what is going on, but just does her damndest to push it out of her life. As
evidence, the author details this:
I know exactly what youre talking about., my mother said to Mrs. Shatz, my visiting
fourth-grade teacher....Hopefully one day hell pay off, but until then, what do you say we have
ourselves another glass of wine?
Our author details that this is all part of her act, as she had communications with virtually
every teacher hes had as he grew older. Another related concept we can attribute to the mother,
and the family as a whole technically, is the identity claims idea. With this, we have symbols
that a person consciously creates to communicate an impression. In this case, these symbols are

not done purposely by the characters highlighted. A glaring example is when Miss Chestnut
walks in and the mother mentioned the boxes being stacked all around the door and the hallways.
While meeting the teacher, she highlights that its the fathers fault, in which the reader can
assume he is a hoarder due to the random objects stored away. The setting itself details the
environment young Sedaris grows up in, and I feel it is not a coincidence that his parents have
personalities like this paired with their home dcor.
Finally, we have Miss Chestnut; one of many teachers that have visited the Sedaris
household over the years to examine young Davids personal life. As Ive mentioned before, she
is quite the snarky woman who clearly has a disposition for silly behavior. Since we only see
Miss Chestnut in a formal setting, we do not really get to know her. The only real dialogue we
get to examine is her response to young Davids actions, where she can clearly be in control of
the situation with her words. With that being stated, her personality matches perfectly with the
primacy effect concept. In the story, she is quoted on saying, maybe they do that from where
you come from, and while that is certainly a reasonable response, it fits her narrative about
assuming something is wrong with either him or his mother, in which Miss Chestnut calls her
blind in that same dialogue. All in all, we have a teacher who assumes the worst out of her
student before seeing what home life is like. Now again, its not unreasonable to think this way
and given the time period, teachers could think this way. However, as a teaching professional,
youd like to see a little more restraint in terms of conversation tactics.

To kick-off the 2nd part of this story, we the readers learn that hid life seemingly fast forwards a
decade because in the meeting with Miss Chestnut, the author informs us that these
conversations happen all the time. Seemingly originating in 4th grade, she met with teachers up

until high school, and then the story dives deep into his self-awareness. Younger David was
almost convinced that his oddities had decreased in consistency, but that was not the case. While
still having these tics, he acknowledged not being normal for pictures & his very awkward
apparel stage with way-too-big of clothes and clanging medallions around his neck. Sedaris
then transitions into his freshman year of college where he claims he only got 14 minutes of
sleep due to his tendencies. When Sedaris realizes he will have a roommate, his personality turns
very dark. He knows he cannot function like his usual self and not completely tell the truth about
it to a complete stranger. He starts making up excuses for his tics, one of them being a brain
tumor and how doctors tell him to perform exercises. All in all, he is very reminiscent of a
sociopath with how he thinks and the next tidbit will expose that. His roommate, Oscar, has had
a girlfriend for a few years now and David saw this as a weakness. He explains sitting in bed,
rocking back n forth about Oscars tragic death in a car accident and other various acts of
violence resulting in Oscars death. His end game was to go through as many roommates as
possible in order to be in a single room. The big question is why, but again, none of his actions
throughout this whole story have any rationale. We continue on to his summary of college and
him assessing his present life. He discovered alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes, which for some
reason was his miracle drug. He described his tics soon faded after picking up smoking. The
urges went away and he did not feel the need to touch anything like he used to. More
specifically, the cigarettes was what cured him, ironically.
Sedaris sometimes tries to revisit his former movements, jerks, and tics, but it just doesnt
work. He lives a life of acceptance now, just mulling along and forging his own path. Theres no
record of what he does for work, just that everything seems relatively normal for him now. Aside
from showing sociopathic thoughts in his young adult years, he never acted upon them which I

find very indicative of his mental state. The process not to act on them reduces those same ideas
to intrusive thoughts, which many people have on occasion. Through the story, our character
goes through a couple concepts, those being reflected appraisal and a little bit of self-concept.
With the latter of the two, we see young David acknowledge his oddity, almost with a certain
satisfaction. He knows what he is doing every step of the way and uses it as his motivation to
keep going. We see Sedaris asking himself Why cant I? Im not hurting anyone.. Technically
hes not wrong, but it certainly not a social norm. Lastly, well touch upon reflected appraisal.
With him knowing of his actions, he never sizes himself up. There is no moment of selfrealization where he establishes himself. I like to believe that in a normal persons life, they have
many of these moments. To him early on, the meaning of life is null and void because all he
cares about is how many steps it takes to get home or if he touched the neighbors mailbox in the
proper spot, further demonstrating that David Sedaris may be a sociopath to a small degree.

Works Cited

Sedaris, David. Naked. 1997th ed. Boston: Little, Brown, 1997. 15. Print.
Sedaris, David. Naked. 1997th ed. Boston: Little, Brown, 1997. 14. Print.
Rothwell, Dan J. In the Company of Others: An Introduction to Communication. 4thth
ed. N.p.: Oxford University Press, n.d. 53-54. Print.
Rothwell, Dan J. In the Company of Others: An Introduction to Communication. 4thth
ed. N.p.: Oxford University Press, n.d. 53. Print.
Aull, Felice. N.p.: n.p., n.d. New York University. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
<http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/view/1172>.