The Essay

Desi King
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Hatten

English 10
A Day in the Life of Augusten Burroughs

This book is full of events that happen in this man life that seem so serial it couldn’t be

true. It talks about his alcoholic father and his drugs addict mother who is also on the crazy side.

It talks about him finding himself as in his sexual preference and who is truly is. This book

shows Augusten Burroughs as theses three things being caring, feminine and controlling.


Augusten is shown to be caring because he is always there for his mom and is will to help

people when they need it. “I ran back into the kitchen and paced frantically around the table. I

grabbed a dried, raw dog off the counter and drummed it against my chest. “What should I do?

What should I do? What should I do?” I was like an autistic sitting against a wall” (252). This

quote shows that Augusten is caring because Neil has run away and he is worried sick about

him. In the story, he drives so go find him and they do end up finding him but he really does

care about. Augusten shows that he is caring in many other ways in this story.

Augusten is also very feminine he enjoys dressing up in women’s clothing and he like doing

hair. He also really cares about his
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appearance as in what he is wearing. “ Plus, I like uniforms and I would get wear one, along with

a white shirt and a tie, even a tie-tack in the shape of an airplane wings” (2). This quote is an

example of him being feminine and caring about what he looks like on the outside. Augusten is

controlling and he can easily control what he wear its pretty much the only thing can control in

his crazy life.

Augusten is also as controlling. He get upset when things don’t go his way. He also doesn’t

care about the other people feeling in some cases. He would rather have things go the way he

wants them to then other people to be happy. “Oh shut up. You’ll get used to it” (201). In this

quote, Augusten had dyed Neil’s hair. The box said Ash Blonde and it turned out being greenish

brown. Neil is very upset, Augusten just tells him to get over, and he doesn’t care what he

thinks about it.

Augusten show the traits caring, feminine, and controlling through out the book. He show

caring by going after some one he loves when he knew something wasn’t right. He shows

femininity by paying attention to detail like in his dress and his mother dress as well. He shows

that he is controlling when he dyed Neil hair and truly didn’t care for his opinion. Those were

the traits shown by Augusten Burroughs.