"Battling Clean-Up and Striking Out" SOAPSTone

Subject

The subject of Dave Barry's “Battling Clean-Up and Striking Out” is that of gender differences. The topic of what makes men and women tick is illustrated by his very first sentence, in which he says that “the primary difference between men and women is that women can see extremely small quantities of dirt.” This immediately steps into the topic by illustrating one of the differences he sees between the two genders, namely that women can see dirt at the molecular level.

Occasion

“Battling Clean-Up and Striking Out” was written during the 1980s.The essay's time of creation is conveyed by the level of technology shown in the piece, as many of the issues that men and women had could have been solved through technology that we have today, such as how Maddy's husband gets away from the gathering to watch the World Series by using their baby as an excuse, whereas now he could have just watched it on his phone or some other thing like that. The probable place of the essay's creation is Miami, as it says that that Dave Barry lives in Miami in the blurb about the author at the beginning of the piece.

The time and place of the essay's creation influence the essay by causing problems that would not happen or not have as much impact in today's world. This is shown through the before example of how the husband makes an escape rather than just being able to watch the game on his phone or some other thing like that.

Audience

Dave Barry's specific audience for “Battle Clean-Up and Striking Out” is that of married men. The author's target audience is exhibited by the joking way is refers to woman’s ability to “see” every single speck of dirt in the area, as that is the type of humor that a married man would find funny, such as the historical story of Pompeii with a special “Dave Barry twist” added so as to make it funny to the readers. Through the story, you can tell that he wants to get to people who actually understand what subject he's trying to make light of.

The author's general audience for the essay could be married men and women. The author's general audience if shown by his added details about the need to watch sports that men have. While this part is seen by him as more serious, you can also tell by the way he writes that while he is more favorable towards sports than cleaning, you can also see that he is trying to make jokes about both. While men would laugh at the part about how much women can see dirt, women can also read the part about men and sports as quite funny as well, especially because of how serious Dave Barry seems to be about it.

Purpose

Dave Barry's purpose in “Battling Clean-Up and Striking Out” is the entertain readers with a topic that would otherwise be hard to talk about. He tries to makes light of a subject that, if taken in a serious way, could make some people angry or mad, while they just laugh and agree since it is written humorously. This attempt to make a serious topic funny is illustrated by his wording on the topic, such as when he talks about getting “the Standard Male Cleaning Implements, namely a spray bottle of Windex and a wad of paper towels.” In this quote, he not only sarcastically says that he thinks all men think that you can clean everything with Windex and paper towels, he also uses something that everyone would know was wrong, such as just spraying Windex on everything.

Speaker

Dave Barry, a popular humor columnist, believes that a subject can be talked about as long as one approaches it with humor, or at least in the right way, just as he approaches that topic of gender differences with a humorous tone, as otherwise he would have had his readers up in arms. When he says “...a hormonal secretion takes place in women that enables them to see dirt that men cannot see, dirt at the level of molecules, whereas men don't generally notice it until it forms clumps large enough to support agriculture.” This statement is obviously supposed to be funny, as it makes fun of both genders, but if it had been meant in a serious way, then fewer people would have found this essay to be good, and more so they would have just found it insulting.

Dave Barry's use of sarcasm is evident in his use of specific words, such as in the line, “...over to her house for an evening of stimulating conversation and jovial companionship...” where his vocabulary suddenly expands and he starts to use words that are much bigger than he had been using for the rest of the essay. This use of sarcasm manages to get across the humor that he means to go with the essay, which helps him out as it makes his essay readable and so that people don't get mad at him for not taking the subject the right way.

Tone

Dave Barry exhibits a light and sarcastic attitude about the differences between men and women in “Battling Clean-Up and Striking Out.” These attitudes are expressed by the words “stimulating,” and “jovial,” as stated in the last paragraph. They get across the light and sarcastic tone of the essay. This tone helps make sure people know that he does not actually think what he is saying, or at least he does not think it seriously. This makes sure that the readers know that he wants to entertain them with what could be a very touchy topic.