Rhetorical Analysis

Let it Snow, by David Sedaris is a humorous yet serious story about children trying to gain the attention of their mother. The author writes comedically about a darker subject that shows how different and complex a family relationship can be.

The story begins with a group of children who are shooed out of their home by their mother because she is annoyed of them being in the house. Due to snow they have had almost a week off school. When they are done playing and return home, much to their dismay, their mother has locked them outside and is ignoring them. In return the children come up with a crazy scheme to get the attention of their neglectful mother.

This dark comedy is shown when the children return home and are trying to get back in the house. The children are no older than elementary school age and are outside in the middle of winter. When they try to get back in, they see their mother ignoring them and she even goes to refill her alcoholic beverage. The humorous part is how the children attempt to grab their mother’s attention by throwing snowballs at the window and how one child even curses at their mother behind her back.

This is also shown when the children go to even greater lengths to get some sort of acknowledgment from their mother. They discuss a scheme where they plan to lay in the middle of a road in order to get hit by a car. The kids think that they are going to teach their parents a lesson this way. They chose the youngest of the group, a six year old to carry out the plan. They chose her because she demonstrates little to no concept of death or danger, but the children are desperate and will do anything to get what they desire. When their mother eventually comes outside not properly dressed for the cold and disheveled, the children quickly crop any malcontent held for her. When she loses her shoe in the snow the children even help her look for it. One child takers her hat off and another takers her scarf off to make a makeshift footwear for their mother because they pitied her. 

This story is written humorously almost to lighten the dark mood of the work as a whole. This makes it a complex piece with a deep underlying message that is conveyed in an entertaining way.