Running Head: Everyones Space

1










Everyones Space
Jorge Andujar
Devry University
Professor Monaghan









Running Head: Everyones Space

2
Again Home is where the heart is the perfect way to describe Cofer, Sedaris
and Michael Lewis. Now with Michael Lewis in the picture we are looking at a
different type of space. Cofer and Sedaris can relate with Lewis but at the same
time they do not. Lewis has a funny way of looking at his space; he looks at it in the
eyes of a rich man and a middle class citizen.
Home is where everything is right and no other place is more comfortable.
Home is where the heart is. Lewis has a big heart in this case. He is given the
opportunity to live in a house that he has always seen. The way Lewis makes it
sounds like if it was all a dream at some point in his life. He remembers being a
child and passing by it with his bike numerous times. He goes on talking about the
house As soon as I saw it, I knew it the mansion. The most conspicuously grand
house in New Orleans. As a child Id ridden my bike past it 2,000 times and always
felt a tiny bit unnerved. It wasnt just a mansion; it seemed like the biggest mansion
on the street with all the mansions, St. Charles Avenue, an object of fascination for
the tourists on the clanging streetcars. But it was hard to imagine a human being
standing beside it, much less living inside I, and as far as I could tell, none ever did.
There was never any sign of life around it; it was just this awesome, silent pile of
pale stone. (Lewis)

The thing about home is that its nothing like a house. Its two different types
of home one is where you live and one is where your space is. The other kind is
your space the place where you are in your zone. Cofer has a different life than Lewis.
Comparing Lewiss childhood to Cofers, you can see the difference in financial classes
Running Head: Everyones Space

3
that the two are in. Cofer says, I do remember the way the heater pipes banged and
rattled, startling all of us out of sleep until we got so used to the sound that we
automatically shut it out or raised our voices above the racket(Cofer). Her memories of
her house in the United States shows that she did not have a lot growing up. But when
she was in Puerto Rico it seemed that she had a better living situation. When comparing
Lewis to Cofer it becomes clear that they have some similarities and some differences.
Lewis was raised to be a middle class citizen and now considers himself a upper middle
class citizen. Cofer lives in an apartment building but is not a lower class citizen.
It is different in America than it is in many countries when it comes to living and
having your own space. Michael Lewis has a different life when he was younger. Cofer
lives in a apartment building, and from the passage it sounds like she does not have a lot
living in a urban area. Her mother makes it harder for them to leave because she is
affected by her culture. Where she lives there is people she can relate to and she feels
comfortable.
Sedaris says, " it came to decorating her home, my mother was
nothing if not practical. She learned early on that children will destroy whatever you
put in front of them, so for most of my youth our furniture was chosen for its
durability rather than for its beauty. The one exception was the dining-room set,
which my parents bought shortly after they were married. Should a guest eye the
buffet for longer than a second, my mother would notice and jump in to prompt a
compliment. "You like it?" she'd ask. "It's Scandinavian!" This, we learned, was the
name of a region-a cold and forsaken place where people stayed indoors and plotted
the death of knobs. (Sedaris). The way of living for Sedaris is completely different
Running Head: Everyones Space

4
from Lewis and Cofer. Sedaris has to deal with his parents and their crazy. Sedaris
had a very eventful life in the story and did not really have his own space. His
mother was into her home and his father was not the best. Lewis and Cofer had a
family that they included with their space. Sedaris did not really like being home
and had problems with his family.
Michael Lewis has a funny way of talking about his space. He makes up his
own class and talks about upper class people. Lewis explains how he feels about the
classes of people when he says, In this house, I now glimpsed the problem with
upper-middle-classness: It isnt really a class. Its a space between classes. The space
may once have been bridgeable, but lately its become a chasm. Middle-class people
fantasize about travel upgrades; upper-class people cant imagine life without a jet.
Middle-class people help their children with their homework so theyll have a
chance of getting into Princeton; upper-class people buy Princeton a new building.
Middle-class people have homes; upper-class people have monuments. A man
struggling to hold on to the illusion that he is upper middle class has become like a
character in a cartoon earthquake: He looks down and sees his feet being dragged
ever farther apart by a quickly widening fissure. His legs stretch, then splay, and
finally he plunges into the abyss.(Lewis)
Lewis has the right idea and is very adventurist with his space. Cofer and
Sedaris do not have the luxury like Lewis but still have the same mentality. Space is
very important because it can define who you are but it cannot change you into who
you are not. Culture affects space and American culture is so diverse that it works.
Running Head: Everyones Space

5
References
Cofer, Silent Dancing. (n.d.). Retrieved August 11, 2014.
This Old House. (n.d.). Retrieved August 11, 2014.
When Michael Lewis and his family. (n.d.). Retrieved August 21, 2014.