Go Carolina By David Sedaris Summary

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Go Carolina Summary and Analysis David Sedaris begins this series of autobiographical essays with a story from his early childhood. While he is sitting in his fifth grade geography class, an unfamiliar teacher unexpectedly calls him out of the room. His mind flashes images of television shows where secret agents come knocking on doors in pursuit of a criminal. He then quickly runs through a list of crimes for which he might be punished. It is immediately evident that even as a child, Sedaris uses pop culture as a source of reference for many real life circumstances. En route to her office, the teacher asks Sedaris if he is a State or Carolina fan. According to Sedaris, this is a typical question among North Carolina natives and is a sneaky…show more content…
When Gretchen's skills are recognized by her teachers, both Mr. and Mrs. Sedaris take credit for her inborn abilities. Mrs. Sedaris claims that she had a talent for drawing and sculpture as a child. She is also known for drawing a particular cartoon woodpecker to entertain her children. Unlike his wife, Lou Sedaris decides his talents are latent and takes up painting to prove his artistic skill. He paints New York streetscapes and mimics the works of artists like Renoir with great aptitude. After proving his talent, Lou puts his artist's tools aside. Sedaris soon snatches up the leftovers, thinking he can certainly do it if his father can, and begins his artistic career. Moment Two: Sedaris soon learns that painting is not his forte, unlike his talented sister. His still life paintings of grapes look like stones, so he moves onto to tracing comics. Moment Three: Sedaris enrolls as an art major at an agricultural college. It is here that Sedaris draws his first live nude. However, before this opportunity, he agonizes over whether his teacher or classmates will notice that he is drooling over the hulking, beautiful male specimen. Fortunately, he discovers that his worries are somewhat unfounded. Though the nude model is in fact hulking, it is also a

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