Kiss and Tell Excerpt Paragraph

Creating a comic effect through a series of descriptions, dialogues, and actions in the excerpt from Alain de Botton utilizes predictable characterization, first person point of view, and playful banter to convey the idea that families have a way of coming together and connecting despite certain members’ best efforts.
Botton characterizes the Rogers parents as people who seem to be a bit ignorant when it comes to certain social situations through a series of different awkward encounters. Many of the things that both parents do may seem somewhat normal but when done in the presence of Isabel’s date, who they are just meeting for the first time, makes them seem awkward. While the mother is speaking to both her daughter Isabel, and her date, she describes the dress her daughter is wearing as “very nice” though it is a “pity you don’t have more cleavage for it”, a phrase that most mothers would have left out while in the presence of the date. When Isabel first notices her parents she claims that they will eventually be having an argument about something along the lines of “where [Dad] put the car park tickets”, an accusation that is proven to be true when her mother says her “day would be fine if I wasn’t lumbered with someone who kept losing tickets to the car park”. The father seems to be flighty and oblivious which is probably the reason for losing the ticket and “looking up at the ceiling with an intent expression”. Instead of interrogating Isabel’s new boyfriend, he is more interested in investigating the “new tungsten bulbs” in the theater.