SOAPSTone Dave Barry

Subject
The subject of Dave Barry’s Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out is that women and men have very different interests and opinions, especially related to sports and cleaning. This difference between the attentiveness of women and men to different activities is illustrated through Barry’s example of a social event and the division of activities between sexes that took place: women and men in different rooms, concerned with their separate favored pastimes. This shows how the men and women have such differing interests, because the men were watching the World Series and the women were socializing with each other and partaking in what I’m sure was intellectually stimulating conversation.
Occasion
Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out came from Dave Barry’s Greatest Hits (1988). The essay’s general time of creation is made apparent by the references to the World Cup and Windex and other relatively modern things. Since these things are relatively modern, one could assume the general time span in which this essay could have been written (luckily it says it at the top, so, said “assuming” is unnecessary). This essay was probably written in America, because Dave Barry is American, and the obviously American names of the people in mentioned in the essay.

The time and place of the essay’s creation influence the essay in him the author having certain interests and referencing certain products and social norms that are specific to his generation. He talks about watching the World Cup on television, which is not something that would have been possible even less than a century ago.
Audience
Barry’s specific audience for Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out men and women who are in a relationship. The author’s target audience is exhibited by his jokes about his wife and him, and their disagreements and separate interests. This wouldn’t be humorous to someone significantly younger, or someone who doesn’t understand relationships.

The author’s general audience is teens and up. The author’s general audience is communicated through his slightly mature humor, and vocabulary.

Purpose
Dave Barry’s purpose in Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out is to be humorous, while touching on a well understood and common subject. There is no specific action the author wants his audience to take, his goal is just to entertain them. His attempted humor is shown when he retells the story of the Pompeii volcano disaster by exaggerating men's’ ignorance towards cleaning by saying that “They never even noticed the ash until it had for the most part covered the children.”
Tone
Barry shows a sarcastic and humorous attitude about the differences in the interests on men and women in Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out These attitudes are expressed with his exaggeratory and sarcastic word choice.