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16. Connections. When have you acted or wanted to act as Sedaris did with his candy?
5
Describe the situation. What did your actions or intentions reveal about you?
17. Speaking and Listening. David Sedaris is a regular contributor to National Public Radio, and
audio of him reading of his essays is widely available online. Listen to one or more of his
pieces and explain how listening to him speak affects the way that you understand the
Narrative
intended humor of “Us and Them.”
18. Research. This narrative takes place in the early 1960s, and Sedaris makes it seem as if the
Tomkeys are very strange for not having a television. Would they have been? Research the
prevalence of TV ownership and the role of television in America at the time of the events to
answer this question.
19. Creative Writing. Try writing a few paragraphs from the perspective of one of the Tomkeys, a
child or a parent, as that member of the family interacts with the Sedaris family.
20. Multimodal. Sedaris feels sorry for the Tomkeys because without a TV he assumes that they do
not understand the same cultural references he does, such as “Danger, Will Robinson” or Elmer
Fudd’s voice. Create a multimodal piece with modern examples of images, video, memes, or
other texts that you think people without the Internet or streaming services might not understand.

Wearing a Mask Won’t Protect Us
from Our History

Burnell Cotlon
Burnell Cotlon is an Army veteran and the owner of a small
neighborhood grocery store in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans,
Louisiana. He told the following story to Eli Saslow, a reporter for the
Washington Post, in April 2020. William Widmer/Redux

KEY CONTEXT In 2019–20, at the beginning of the COVID-19
pandemic, many businesses that were not deemed “essential” were
forced to close to slow the spread of infection, resulting in high unemployment and increased poverty
for many. At the time, Cotlon was operating the only grocery store in his entire neighborhood.

know every person who comes into this store, Everybody’s scared of everybody in a gro-
I and they know me. Burnell’s Market. It’s my cery now. There’s so much fear, and I get it. I’m
name above the door. These are my neighbors, scared, too. But what bothers me more is the
but now we’re eyeing each other like strangers, desperation.
paranoid and suspicious. “Don’t stand so close.” This is the only fresh grocery in the Lower
“Don’t breathe too heavy.” “Just drop the gro- Ninth Ward of New Orleans, so pretty much
ceries in the trunk and walk away.” Some people everybody’s a regular. They come for cigarettes
have started sliding money back and forth across or a biscuit on their way to work. Its mostly tour-
the counter with a plastic spoon. ism jobs down here — Bourbon Street, the big

Burnell Cotlon, as told to Eli Saslow, “Wearing a Mask Won’t Protect Us From Our History,” Washington Post, April 11, 2020.
Copyright © 2020 by Washington Post. Used under license. All rights reserved. https://www.WashingtonPost.com/
172
Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample.
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.

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