Kiss and Tell Paragraph

     In this embarrassing tale of how a daughter's date is ruined by her parents in Kiss and Tell, Alain de Botton uses subtle characterization to convey the theme of humor. Isabelle finds herself trying to explain her parents situation to her boyfriend. In the process we learn about the humorous relationship they share. It is evident when shes says "This is prime argument territory for them, Mum will be asking Dad where he put the car park ticket and he'll get flustered because he'll just have dropped it into a bin by mistake", that her and her mother have little respect for her father. As the story progresses you realize the type of people her parents are. When her mother says, "Oh, well, it's very nice, pity you don't have the cleavage for it, but that's your father's fault", it shows that she is an extroverted person. Again it shows disrespect toward the father because usually the cleavage of a girl would not be linked to her father, but since the mother knows she will receive no resistance from the father with this statement she says it anyway. Lastly, when the father tries to defend his daughter from embarrassment in front of her boyfriend, "Don't mind her, bean, she's had a hard day", he is quickly shut down by his wife, "My day would be fine if I wasn't lumbered with someone who kept losing tickets to the car park". He submits to her once again and shows he really has no control over the relationship.