Naked

“Because we are so smart, my parents and I are able to see through people as if they were made of hard, clear plastic. We know what they look like naked and can see the desperate inner workings of their hearts, souls, and intestines. Someone might say, ‘How’s it hangin,’ big guy,’ and I can smell his envy, his fumbling desire to win my good graces with a casual and inappropriate folksiness that turns my stomach with pity. How’s it hanging, indeed. They know nothing about me and my way of life; and the world, you see, is filled with people like this.”

This passage is from young David’s fantasy life at the beginning of Chapter One. It implies that—among wealth, poise, and acclaim—he desires the ability to “see through” people and understand them easily. This is echoed at the end of the final chapter, “Naked,” wherein Sedaris feels as though he can see through strangers as if he were wearing X-ray glasses.

“I had no notion of the exact mechanics, but from over-hearing the neighbors, I understood that our large family had something to do with my mother’s lack of control. It was her fault that we couldn’t afford a summer house with bay windows and a cliffside tennis court. Rather than improve her social standing, she chose to spit out children, each one filthier than the last.”

This quotation introduces the pervading sexism that colors Sedaris’s childhood recollections. While David is white, able-bodied, male, and a gentile, he catalogues his interactions with prejudice against people of color, disabled people, women, and Jewish people throughout Naked. Sexism is a particularly pernicious problem in his immediate family; Sedaris highlights its subtle and consistent impact on his mother and sisters, although he was sometimes ignorant of it at the time.

“I understood that she needed more than just a volunteer maid. And, oh, I would be that person. A listener, a financial advisor, even a friend: I swore to be all those things and more in exchange for twenty dollars and a written guarantee that I would always have my own private bedroom. That’s how devoted I was. And knowing what a good deal she was getting, my mother dried her face and went off in search of her pocketbook.”

Here, Sedaris characterizes his childhood relationship with his mother: She relied on him for emotional support despite his young age, a fact that he relished. As an adult, Sedaris looks back on this warmly.