Jesus Shaves David Sedaris Identity Language

In “Jesus Shaves,” David Sedaris writes about the comical but complex losses of translation when trying to explain a religious festival in a second language. All the students in the class are learning French as a second language, but come from different backgrounds. The author is American, but classmates are from Poland, Morocco, and Italy. In fact, the Moroccan student is the one that triggers the theme of cultural relativism when she asks the class to explain Easter. Thus forced, most of the first time, to explain a festival that they had so deeply taken for granted, everyone in the class including the teacher struggles to find the words. The students understandably trip over their limited vocabulary and grammar, let alone their lack of historical, theoretical, or religious studies expertise. Yet even the teacher, with her full command of English, cannot provide the Moroccan student with a definitive or satisfactory response about the meaning of Easter. To describe to a foreigner a holiday that celebrates a god’s death and resurrection via symbols like chocolate, bells, palm fronds, and bunny rabbits requires a leap of faith. Sedaris links the leap of faith in Christian belief to the leap of faith in oneself, the confidence and courage it takes to master a foreign tongue. In “Jesus Shaves,” David Sedaris uses irony and dark humor in a postmodern meta-analysis of the interrelated issues of semantics, faith, language, and culture.
One of the defining features of Sedaris’s language is its informality and liberal use of slang, even vulgarity. The last line of the essay reads, “A bell, though, that’s fucked up,” (3). The use of the vulgar word underscores the absurdity of the entire exercise, from the struggle of learning a new language from scratch and in a room composed of people from different backgrounds, but also the impossibility of explaining why sensible modern people would believe in a dead and resurrected god that is somehow connected to bells, chocolate, and palm trees. Vulgarity perfectly parallels absurdity, as the language Sedaris use is a counterpart to the ironic and absurdist story. It is also ironic that Sedaris uses vulgarity given the author is relaying a story about formal language learning. The students in the class are trying to learn formal French, not slang French, even though what they learn might never be useful in real life given that few people speak in perfectly formal grammar or using formal vocabulary. Sedaris’s diction also helps the author connect with multiple audiences to get across an effectively postmodern point: the rules of language do not matter any more than the rote rituals of a religion. Perfect grammar and vocabulary are the linguistic counterparts of the Eucharist or Palm Sunday: empty shells devoid of meaning. The only meaning in language or in religious ritual is in what the believers or the speakers impart. Thus, Sedaris achieves his goal relating semantics, faith, language, and culture through the use of ironic diction.
Brevity and clarity are important functional characteristics of Sedaris’s essay “Jesus Shaves.” Just as the best communicators can distill the meaning of what they say into as few words as possible, thus conveying complex messages in ways most people will understand, Sedaris restricts his writing to less than three pages. The length of the text belies the complexity of its content. Although brevity usually entails shortness, the true function of brevity is actually clarity and precision. As McKnight points out, brevity is difficult to define, meaning at once using as few words as possible but also making sure that ones words are as exact and to the point as possible. Sedaris expertly weaves a tale that does not sacrifice the power of storytelling, dialogue, and nuance while still remaining remarkably short and pithy. The irony of using brevity in the case of “Jesus Shaves” is that the Christian story is far from brief, concise, or clear. Religious texts are notoriously rambling, convoluted, and obscure. The New Testament, from which the original Jesus story arises, also contains contradictory material written and compiled by different authors, all hearsay second hand testimony related to the primary character of Jesus. The reason why the students in the class have trouble communicating concisely is because they have never truly been able to grasp their own religion and culture. Having long been taught that the scripture is sacred, they have not fully digested the content or meaning of the material in a way that allows them to convey the meaning and message using the simple vocabulary and grammar they do already know in French.
One of the main themes of “Jesus Shaves” is cultural relativism and the corresponding concept of diversity. Easter is a Christian holiday, but it is perceived and celebrated totally differently by different Christian cultures. The only thing that binds together Poland, the United States, and Rome is the story of Jesus dying on the cross and then being resurrected: the essence of the Easter myth. Beyond that, a wealth of cultural symbols and baggage is projected onto the core narrative of Jesus. The narrator recalls the Easter bunny form his childhood: a relic of pagan times perhaps, but something that is singular to American society. The teacher and the classmates think the narrator is ridiculous when he mentions the Easter bunny: “My classmates reacted as though I'd attributed the delivery to the Antichrist. They were mortified,” (Sedaris 2). In the same way, the narrator looks down upon French society: “when Bastille Day eventually rolled around, I planned to stay home and clean my oven,” (1). Even though they are trying to speak the same language, they are failing because of their unwillingness to set aside their judgments. Learning a language is not just about translating word for word, but about understanding a different mindset, worldview, and culture. Sedaris seems to get that, even though his narrator sardonically ends by saying “A bell, though, that’s fucked up,” (3). The Moroccan Muslim girl at least draws attention to the Euro-centrism and Christian-centrism that has for so long characterized Western culture.
The unifying forces in Sedaris’s story include food and faith. When it becomes too much of a struggle to describe the allegory of Easter or the story of Jesus, the class switches the universally understandable subject of food: “we did what any self-respecting group of people might do. We talked about food instead,” (Sedaris 2). Ironically, even food talk cannot bridge the cultural gap. Whereas the narrator’s chocolate came from a bunny, the French chocolate comes from a bell. Both a bunny and a bell are just symbols, but symbols that connote culture. Each person in the class clings to their time-honored family traditions around Easter because of their emotional content, and have trouble transcending that emotionality and arbitrary meaning when they speak to the Muslim girl in the class. She has no connection either to America or to Europe and so quickly loses interest in their semantic bickering over what constitutes the true celebration of Easter. Sedaris’s observations parallel research in linguistics and second-language learning, which shows that identity and socialization are critical to learning outcomes (Kinginger 155). In the end, no one can answer the Moroccan girl’s question. In a language class, no one is able to communicate. Sedaris therefore makes fun of the ways people fail to connect with one another using simple words and concepts.
Because of its irony, iconoclasm, and relativism, David Sedaris’s “Jesus Shaves is quintessentially postmodern. The author addresses the interrelated issues of semantics, faith, language, and culture. Sedaris uses vulgarity to describe the failings of formal language lessons, and likewise shows how attachment to arbitrary symbols detracts from the underlying function of language, which is to communicate and get one’s point across. Sedaris masters the art of clear communication or brevity, as if to provide an example of how it is possible to do away with the trappings of culture, tradition, and faith. Although Sedaris claims that it requires a leap of faith to learn a language, nothing could be farther from the truth. Learning a language requires mainly hard work and having a good teacher.



Works Cited

Kinginger, Celeste. “Language Socialization and Identity.” In Language Learning and Study Abroad. Pp. 154-204. Retrieved online: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-0-230-24076-6_5
Mcknight, Steven C. “The Importance of Brevity.” The Odyssey Online. Retrieved online: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/the-importance-of-brevity
Sedaris, David. “Jesus Saves.” Retrieved online: http://scottduncan.free.fr/blog/jesus_shaves.pdf