Many people believe that college is about being serious all of the time. James Thurber shows his readers that college can be humorous as well as serious. In his essay "University Days", Thurber talks about certain situations that happened to him at the Ohio State University. Throughout the essay, Thurber targets his peers, professors, and himself when discussing what is humorous about his college experience.
In the essay "University Days", author James Thurber uses two students" experiences to show the humor of college. First, Thurber describes a student named Bolenciecwcz, a football star at Ohio State. He is not very intelligent when it comes to school or anything else. "While he was not dumber than an ox he was not any smarter" (Thurber 236) and his professors must assist him in class. Bolenciecwcz must keep up his grades in order to be eligible to play, so "most of his professors [are] lenient and [help] him along." (236) The second student that Thurber makes fun of is Haskins. As a journalism student, Haskins is a very poor writer. "His stories were dull and colorlessly written," (238) and Haskins was not cut out for journalism. He should have majored in agricultural instead of journalism. The newspaper editor assigned Haskins to the cow barns, the sheep house, the horse pavilion, and the animal husbandry department. Haskins was still not able to write a decent story. Thurber not only uses his peers to show humor, he also makes fun of his professors.
Everyone has professors that they will never forget. Thurber describes three very different professors that he still remembers. He shows what is humorous about these men. The first professor that Thurber makes fun of is his Botany professor. This professor's humor is shown through this frustration. He becomes angry when Thurber cannot see the plant cells through the microscope and "he [began] to quiver all over, like Lionel Barrymore." (235) The second professor that Thurber makes fun of is Mr.
