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...
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.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
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