David vs. Toilet

Author's Note: This piece is a demonstration of cause and effect because we have been learning this skill in language arts. 

In this story, a young David Sedaris discovers a person who did not flush the toilet in a bathroom and has to get rid of the…remains.  While he would have loved to just leave it, he couldn’t because everyone knew that he was in the bathroom and that would be embarrassing if the next person in the bathroom said something about it. He tried flushing the toilet several times but nothing happened. As young David is trying to figure out how to get rid of it, someone knocks on the door.

Because of this person, now  David has to hurry up or someone will think that ‘something’ is up. If this person wouldn’t have knocked on the door than, David wouldn’t have had to hurry up. I don’t think that he would have solved his problem if Janet, girl who knocked on the door, wouldn’t have bothered him.  Also he wouldn’t even be in this predicament if the person who was in the bathroom would have dealt with this little ‘problem’ in the first place. 

Big Boy (Conflict/Resolution)

Author's Note: This piece is about conflict/resolution. in the story Big Boy. I wrote this to demonstrate my understanding of conflict/resolution. 

The boy in this story, David Sedaris, is faced with a problem when he goes to a dinner party with his family and a few other families as well. He excused himself to use the restroom and when he got there he found a surprise. Someone had left a giant turd in the toilet. While he would have loved to just leave it, he couldn’t because everyone knew that he was in the bathroom and that would be embarrassing if the next person in the bathroom said something about it. He tried flushing the toilet several times but nothing happened. As young David is trying to figure out how to get rid of it, someone knocks on the door. It's Janet and now he really had to hurry.

David is having a Person vs. Person conflict in this story, because it is David vs. the Turd. It is also Person vs. Person because there is someone who is waiting outside the door and he has to hurry or that person, Janet, is going to get mad. Lastly it is Person vs. Self, because if David would have just left it there, he could have just not had this problem in the first place. The only reason he doesn’t leave it is because he doesn’t want to be humiliated if someone thinks it was him. In the end David just ends up using a toilet plunger to break up the specimen in the toilet so that it will flush. To make an excuse he washes his hair while the toilet flushed.