The purpose of Lynda Barry's comic called "Today's Demon: Common Scents" is to demonstrate the importance of accepting others for who they are and their background. I believe that Barry is trying to make a statement by saying you should not look at people and judge them by the way they look or "smell". Today we live in a more "politically correct" society; hence the issue of racism is less visible. There is a big underlying message in this comic and I will show you in this paper how we as a society tend to judge others too quickly. Similarly, Zadie Smith's essay, "Speaking in Tongues," writes about how people have to be more understanding or "flexible" of the differences that people have. Flexible referring to being adaptable to different things or responsive to change. In this paper, I will proceed to ponder the question, why we are so quick to judge others and not take a look at ourselves first? I hope to explore why we, as a society, fail to look at others for who they really are as people and instead focus on factors that do not describe their character.
Both Barry and Smith use different modalities to convey a similar, yet important message of being able to accept yourself and not judge others. The famous "golden rule" states that we should treat others the way we would like to be treated. I can relate the golden rule to what Barry states in her comic with her symbolism. Barry uses symbolism through out the comic. The key term "air freshener" is used frequently in this essay and most people can relate to this symbolism. "I have always noticed the smell of other peoples houses, but when I was a kid I was fascinated by it. No two houses ever smelled alike, even if the people used the same air freshener" (Barry 52). Barry wants to show us that we are all different, and no one is the same, so do not judge people by their "scents". We are all human beings but we have unique differences that make us who we are.
I find the quotation to be quite brilliant. “I’ve never heard a single person ever say they loved the smell of air freshener and yet there are so many people who fill their homes with it” (Barry 59). This is quote is used to show how people can get so wrapped up and frequently try to obscure their differences at times. It perfectly demonstrates that people attempt to hide their "scents" with something that is fresher. Both Barry and Smith attempt to demonstrate that it is OK to live in your own skin. Smith takes a quote from President Obama, in which he is describing a black girl who happened to have multiple ethnic backgrounds. "I'm not black...I'm multiracial...Why should I have to choose between them?" (Smith 5). The lady the president describes appears to have trouble living in her own skin. She is looked at as simply a black girl, but she wanted to be seen for what she was really made of, which happened to be Italian and French and Native American. President Obama "ridiculed" this girl because he felt she should simply be happy in her skin. Obama, himself, has been extremely successful doing just that, taking pride in his origins and not hiding from any of it. I think he President perfectly symbolizes how Smith and Barry feel we should live with the aforementioned example.
Barry goes on to continue and support her fundamental message of the importance of accepting yourself for what you are with the following quote that I have found to be the most important statement in her comic, “Our house smelled like grease and cigs, like jade east and pork and dogs, like all the wild food my grandma boiled and fried. And if they could get that into a spray can, I’d buy it.” (Barry 60). This is where a character in Barry's comic finally accepts who she is and realizes that it is important to be who you are and accept yourself and others for who they are as well. We are have very unique kinds of "smells" and we should be proud of this.
Barry strategically organizes her essay as a comic, it is clear that Barry's context shows laughter with colorful pictures. It is important to see that this is a hard subject to get across but can be talked about in an easier manner like she has with her well put together comic. I feel that she chose to present in this way as a comic because many people can relate to it such as children, adults and really all generations. She uses a child in her comic to show that at a young age we can learn to understand others. With a very short and sweet message Barry really gets her point across with a simple easy to message.
Judging others is a big problem that we all seem to have a problem with. Barry had this as an underlying message throughout her essay is that you should not judge people by their "smells". Barry states "You know, my darling, God has made every people! And every people makes ta-ee! Every ta-ee smells bad! Ask this lady does perfume come out of her pueet? N'ako, I don't think so darling! It is not God's way" (Barry 57). By this quote the grandmother who is speaking is explaining that God has made people in all different kinds of ways but they are all similar when you get down to the basics. Everybody sits on the toilet. Breaking down the similarities to this basic human need truly demonstrates in a simple way that everyone does the same things. The character is attempting to teach the concept of understanding and looking beyond the "smells".
Barry also discusses that it is important really look at yourself and get to really know more about what your truly made of. "Of course the biggest mystery of all was my own house. I couldn't smell it at all. I didn't think it had a smell, which was strange considering all that went on there." (Barry 24). A picture that describes what goes on the panel, " 9,000 cigarettes, Jades East after shave, Jungle gardenia perfume, fried smelt garlic, onions, 1/2 can of adorne hair spray and a dog that rolls on things". Wow, there are many different "smells" going on in this panel. The character never really took a close look at what her "smell" consisted of. One can take all those "smells" and metaphorically use them as different traits, different appearances , and different backgrounds. The quote says "the biggest mystery of all was my own house. I couldn't smell it at all". This clearly states that you must look at yourself and understand yourself before you can "smell" others. Barry is covering the issues that you need to be proud of who you are and accept yourself and at also accepting of others individualism or "smell".
The underlying theme in the two papers we went over in class by Barry and Smith is the importance of living in your own skin and to be accepting of others. They use two unique modalities of getting their message across, Barry with a comic and Smith with a lecture. If Barry did not use a comic on this serious subject then she may have not gotten a wide amount of audience to read this and she presents her serious subject matter in a humorous way in which makes her into a creative writer. They discuss how we must look at ourselves closely and accept who we are and be proud of who we are. They both explain that we are all very similar when you really look at the basics. They discuss how we should accept others for who they are despite how unique they are. They do make a strong point that we must stop being critical for others based on their individuality and we must continue to accept who we are as individuals. The election of President Barack Obama is a very promising sign for both of these aforementioned points and I think both authors smiled when the election results were announced.
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