Figurative Language In Dave Barry's Lost In The Kitchen

In Dave Barry's story, Lost in the Kitchen, he's shows a humorous story about two men's ineptness at helping to prepare for their Thanksgiving dinner. However, as you look closer at the essay you find that the actual message the author is trying to convey is one of stereotypes, and how they appear everyday in our lives, even during the preparations for a simple Thanksgiving dinner. In order to convey this message he uses several strategies and techniques to draw our attention to the use of stereotypes in our lives and to help us better understand the point that he is trying to get across.

We find Dave Barry using is that of figurative language, which is imaginative language that compares one thing to another in ways that are not necessarily logical but that are nevertheless striking, original, and "true." Figurative language includes metaphors, similes and

We see the use of this in the following statements, “…most men make themselves as useful around the kitchen as ill-trained Labrador retrievers (paragraph 2).” and the statement, “I would no more enter that kitchen than I would attempt to park a nuclear aircraft carrier… (paragraph 4 )” and, “I realize this is awful. I realize this sounds just like Ozzie and Harriet (paragraph 7).” All of these statements are being used to add to the stereotype about how useless men are in the kitchen and to enhance and get across his point that, well, these stereotypes are pretty much accurate and true. The main technique we find Dave Barry employing is the use of humor. Throughout this essay he focuses on keeping the tone light and humorous so as to entertain and yet still educate. We see him casually admitting his and others shortcomings as men and directing the humor at himself as he makes fun of his horrible behavior. In doing so, he makes this piece very easy for the reader to relate to; whether you are a woman