The subjest of Dave Barry's "Batting Clean Up and Striking Out" is that men and women are vey different. This is illustrated in the way that he opens the essay. His opening idea begins with "the main difference between men and women is...". This shows that he believes in generalizing all men, women, and their differences.

"Batting Clean Up and Striking Out” was written in 1988. The date is provided in the prologue section. The prologue talks about this essay and many others like it written by Dave Barry. The prologue also discusses when they were written. This essay was also probably was written at the author’s house. This is because he mentions his kids and family many times in the essay.

The author’s specific audience is married men. This is shown when he talks about him and his friends’ wives. The author’s general audience for thia essay is men. This audience is revealed by multiple small jokes about women that women could find offensive. For instance, when the author says that they can see individual “molecules of dirt”. This shows the audience because women wouldn’t enjoy that joke nearly as much as men would.

Barry’s purpose in writing this was to entertain. This is shown on the first page when he explains that the reason that Pompeii was lost was that men didn’t notice the ash until after they were buried. Here, he is not serious, but joking, solely for the purpose on entertainment.

Dave Barry, The New York Times funniest man in America, believes that men are not very good at cleaning. This value is shown when he says that he would clean his son’s bathroom, only to have his wife tell him to do it again. This shows that he honestly was not very good at cleaning. Barry also believes that men are naturaly also more attracted to sports that women are. An example of this is in the end of the essay when the four friends are eating dinner and the author explains the men’s plan to watch the world series. This backs up his point that men care more about sports than women do.

Dave Barry shows a sarcastic attitude about the differences between men and women. One place where this is shown is when he said that his wife interrupted him from doing a “very important project on an etch-a-sketch”. He is obviously being sarcastic when he says this. Another example is when he alludes to “The Tell Tale Heart”. He says he can hear the world series becoming louder and louder until he finally had to break down and watch. Of course, this isn’t true, and he was being sarcastic.