"Battling Clean-Up and Striking Out" by Dave Barry - SOAPSTone

Subject
The subject of Dave Barry's "Battling Clean-Up and Striking Out" is that men and women have different ways of perceiving and doing things. Their differences are illustrated through Barry's use of heavy focus on how women seem to take cleaning and seeing dirt more serious than men, who only care for sports, apparently.

Occasion
"Battling Clean-Up and Striking Out" was written during the 1980s. The essay's time of creation is conveyed before the actual article, underneath the title. It says that the essay is from "Dave Barry's Greatest Hits (1988)" which may or may not point to it being written during 1988, but it was indefinitely written during the 1980s. Also, the World Series is mention, and though the World Series is still going on today, it was a bigger thing back in the 80s. The probable place of the essay's creation is Miami, Florida. Underneath "Dave Barry", it states that Barry lives in Miami with his family. Although it says he was born in Armonk, New York and graduated from Haverford College in Pennsylvania; it was written well after then, for he graduated in 1969. Therefore, he probably wrote it whilst at home.

Audience
Barry's specific audience for "Battling Clean-Up and Striking Out" is adult couples. The author's target audience is exhibited by his subject and tone for this piece. He chose to write about the difference between men and women and to include stories that relate to couples, or even mixed sex friend groups. The author's general audience for this essay is the adult population as a whole. This is shown through the same example as above.

Purpose
Barry's purpose in "Battling Clean-Up and Striking Out" is to inform and entertain about the differences in men and women. In the second paragraph he jokes about Pompeii and how "it was the custom for men to do the housework" and that they "never even noticed the ash until it had for the most part covered the children." Then in the third paragraph, he talks about how his wife told him to clean the bathroom, and when he cleaned the bathroom to his standards, she asked for him to do it again. It is both informative in these differences and it is entertaining through his sarcasm and his stories.

Speaker
Dave Barry, a journalist, believes in humor to soften other things. This value is illustrated by his own twist of a Poe story (The Tell-Tale Heart), where he states, "It was exactly like that story by Edgar Allan Poe where the murderer can hear the victim's heart beating louder and louder even though he (the murder victim) is dead, until finally he (the murderer) can't stand it anymore, and just hast to watch the World Series on television." He does not finish summarizing Poe's story, but instead adds in "watch the World Series" as it pertained to his issues and added humor as well.

Tone
Barry exhibits a sarcastic and humorous attitude about men and women. These attitudes are expressed by his word choices like "Windexed" and "zinging" and "I am a sensitive and caring kind of guy". "Windexed" and "zinging" portray this tone because first of all, Windexed is not a word, and then zinging barely sounds like one. They sound funny in between normal words. His phrase of "I am a sensitive and caring kind of guy" is sarcastic because you would automatically read it in a sarcastic tone. He is very obviously not a sensitive and caring kind of guy. This tone serves the purpose of the essay because it is entertaining, which helps hold your attention for the informative portion--where you hear about his ideas and beliefs, underlying all that sarcasm.