Our family, friends and the environment, around us have an influence on the kind of life we live and this can determine who you would become in the future. The more exposed you are while young, the more mature you become as an adult. In the essay “The Danish Way of Life” the author lamie Gullen contrasts her experience in New York (NY), while she was aDIS student in Copenhagen, Denmark. In Copenhagen, Gullen narrates how the cultural difference between the United States and Denmark enabled her to discover that she was a very caring person and always wanted to help others.
In Copenhagen, Gullen learned about the word “Hygge”. Hygge is a one-syllabus word that Gullen makes us to understand it describes how the Danish people lived their life (Gullen, 283). Hygge is a culture completely different from most of the United States (U. S. ) practiced. Hygge is about loving and caring for one another whereas in NY people are more concern about having a good job and better salary. In the essay “Remembering My Childhood on the Continent of Africa”, the author David Sedaris compares and contrasts his unexciting childhood experience in the U. S. with that of his partner Hugh in Africa.
Hugh a son of a U. S. diplomat grew up in Africa and had challenging but exciting experiences. Sedaris uses parallel sentence structure to compare Hugh’s life to his. Sedaris seems happy that Hugh lived in several countries in Africa, but envied the decadent adventure Hugh had at a tender age in Africa. In the “The Danish way of life”, Gullen describes her personal experience in Denmark and how she discovered her new personality to care for others and she plans to explore this new personality in NY.
Gullen believed that traveling to Denmark made it possible for her to discover that she had Hygge. Hygge demonstrates more important to love for human life, and showing appreciation for family and friend (Gullen, 283). Although Denmark is an English language western country and has a close relationship with the U. S. Gullen makes us understand that these two countries have fundamental cultural differences. In New York where everything is in a faster paste. Parents in NY expect their children to be career driven and highly motivated succeed.
No one in NY has enough time to share a good dinner, but care more about their paycheck and lucrative job. Though Gullen learned about the definition of Hygge, she truly experienced its true meaning of love for family and friend than money when she travels to a small town call Kolding in Western Denmark. In Kolding Gullen discussed more intimately with the natives and realize that the people in Kolding value work as a means to an end not as a prestige as those in NY did (Gullen, 282).
In “Remembering my Childhood on the Continent of Africa”, Sedaris makes a point-by-point comparisons with Hugh’s childhood adventures in his to his in the U. S. before Hugh left for college in France. Sedaris introduces this essay by telling us his interview with Hugh and explained how fearless Hugh was at a younger age. He highlights instances he belief could be traumatizing for a teenager but surprisingly. Hugh was immune to them. For example when Hugh lived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia together with his schoolmates and teachers, they visited a slaughterhouse and witnesses the execution of a pig.
Sedaris called this event to be a lucky experience (Sedaris, 297). Sedaris cites an instance where after Hugh watch the movie ‘the talking Volkswagen’ two hours later, Hugh came across a dead man on a pole and that did not shock him. Sedaris jealously compared these experiences to the one he had while in elementary school, where he visited an Old Salem, which did not seem exciting as Hugh’s. Sedaris was seven years old when his family settled in North Carolina, whereas when Hugh was seven years old, as his family moved to Congo.
Sedaris brings in this time contrast to mphasize that he moved out of Africa to the U. S. when he was very young to be a reason why he missed the opportunities to have exciting experiences like Hugh. Hugh on the other hand growing in Africa was fortunate to live in different countries while witnessing more perplexing situation before he left for college. Hugh lived with complete strangers, while Sedaris remembered visiting his grandmother who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and could barely recognize him. Sedaris acknowledged that Hugh traveled to different places made him more experience (Sedaris, 297).
Both authors are making distinctions between life abroad and in the United States. Gullen explains how living in Denmark did not change her, but allow her to discover her true self. Furthermore, Gullen was older than Hugh when she moved to Denmark for studies. Hence she can better articulate the difference between the countries. Also, Gullen was living in Denmark when she thought of writing her essay, which indicates that her memory was still fresh and she could accurately share her experiences. Gullen seems to be a caring person.
Thus this could be a reason why Gullen talks more of caring for humans, and people living in peace and love. Gullen does not give a detailed account of an event where she was touched by the action of the Danish person towards her, but she instead uses a general conclusion that after interacting with many Danish people, she could extrapolate the importance of Hygge. Sedaris explains that Hugh had this Fortified character because he grew in Africa. Sedaris was comparing his personal experiences rather than talking about the cultural differences between the U. S. and countries in Africa like Gullen did.
Both Sedaris and Hugh were already adults by the time Sedaris decided to write about their childhood. The account of Sedaris’s story will not be as accurate if it was written as the event unfolded or some months later. Sedaris, seems to be an adventurous person as he narrates extravagant events Hugh had, as a slaughterhouse, and a dead man on a pole or escaping an arm bush. Sedaris gives a better description of the scenario surrounding each event Hugh faced as compared to Gullen.
I belief Sedaris’s account of Hugh’s experience while growing up in Africa will be different if Hugh had to write about his experience. Sedaris on the other hand minimized his experience and talks of all the wonderful experiences Hugh had. As a child of a U. S. diplomat Hugh had the luxury of travelling to different countries and meeting different personalities and staying with total strangers, Hugh witnessing horrible scene like the slaughterhouse, the dead man hanged on the pole, not complaining about his birthday are all admirations we get from the people who love and care about us, such as your family or best friend.
Therefore Sedaris might be bias in his account of Hugh childhood life in Africa. Although Sedaris envies certain event of Hugh’s childhood, he also acknowledges that his life was not very bad. Sedaris followed his parent everywhere they went and had no difficult childhood experience and if he ran short of stories of his experience in Africa, he could borrow Hugh’s. These stories teach us that the environment around us has an influence on who we will become in the future and the more exposed you are while young, the more mature you become.