An abomination of a Christmas Dinner

Everyone has encountered, or is due to eventually encounter a situation where everything doesn't exactly go "according to plan." Dave, The Protagonist in Stuart Mclean's "Dave Cooks the Turkey," encountered a very interesting case of exactly this on possibly the worst time for such a thing to occur; when preparing Christmas Dinner. Dave is put in charge of "taking care of the Turkey," and finds himself rushing to find a turkey and cook in an alternative way. McLean uses awkward situations, humorous descriptions, and situations of which one can relate to create humour for the reader. Awkward situations are not necessarily fun for the participants of such, but are often humorous to read about or watch. Dave finds himself in numerous awkward situations during the course of the story, such as when he enters a hotel waiting room, holding his dripping turkey, when he notices his neighbour, "Jim Scoffield [standing] beside an elderly woman whom Dave assumed must be Jim's visiting mother." Furthermore, the use of various humorous and creative descriptions are used to incorporate humour into the story. This is noticeable being when Dave is observing the "Grade B Turkey," and realizes that it "looked like it had made a break from the slaughterhouse and dragged itself a block or two before it was captured and beaten to death." Finally, Mclean uses many situations that readers can relate to in the story, such as taking a direction, and then suddenly realizing later that either you forgot something, or that you were wrong with the original intentions of the direction. This is evident when Dave is told by his wife to take the turkey out of the freezer, and after meticulously checking both freezers and finding nothing, he comes to the sudden realization that "looking after the turkey, something he had promised to do, meant buying it as well as putting it in the oven." Stuart McLean is truly a master of creating comical and interesting stories, and this attempt is no exception.