Essays on Satire

The satirical novel Gulliver's Travels is a unique piece of work as it was written not to entertain the readers. This novel was a kind of an indictment of the society and it was highly popular among scientists, politicians, philosophers - those people who were accused by the writer (“Critical Essays Swift's Satire in Gulliver's Travels”). The tone of the Swift’s novel changes from outright derision to mild wit and, generally, the whole book is penetrated with ridicule. The writer used satire as the main weapon against flaws of society he lived in and flaws of humanity in ...

Molière and Voltaire are thought to be the masters of satire due to their outstanding literary artworks. Their stories usually focus on the modern society, which is usually full with flaws. The authors are responsible for making those flaws not only obvious to the readers, who are not always educated, but also showing them in a humorous way. This genre was very popular back then, but it can still be seen in on TVs and in the modern books. However, nowadays, people are free to express their dissatisfaction with the world. Back then, it was often dangerous to ...

Jonathan Swift, well-known for his satirical writing, suggests in his Modest Proposal some very extreme measures that he considers to be necessary in order to alleviate Ireland's many troubles. He presents his work in the form of a political pamphlet, presumably written by a ruling class persona of Protestant denomination. There are many surprises throughout pamphlet that are intended to shock the reader in such a way as to make him think and reflect about the problems Swift is addressing. These little surprises culminate in a plot-twist in the final few paragraphs of the work. Swift starts off this ...

- Brief biography of the author. Jonathan Swift was born on November 30 in 1667, His family of Anglo-Irish Protestant lived in Dublin, Ireland. His father died a little time before he was born, and his mother had to return to England and left her son in the care of relatives because of poverty. He was well educated: first at Kilkenny Grammar School, which was, at the time, the best in Ireland then at Trinity College in Dublin, though he was not a very good student. In 1689 Swift went to England and became secretary to Sir William Temple at ...

Voltaire identifies various flaws in the society that he lived. The scenario in the Voltaire’s world is analogous to the situation in the modern society. In his book, Voltaire highlights the problems in his society. He uses satire to express his discomfort about various issues in his society. The paper highlights how Voltaire’s approach of the use of satire can successfully be employed in building a better future. The paper suggests the plot of the book, which Voltaire would most likely write in today’s world. Essentially, the paper highlights how Voltaire would present these issues ...

Annotated Bibliography

Baym, Geoffrey. "The Daily Show: Discursive Integration and the Reinvention of Political Journalism." Political Communication, 22(3) (2005): 259-276.

The article informed about disappearing boundaries between politics, pop culture and entertainment. During earlier time programs containing political information & news were completely different from the programs designed for entertainment. Programs containing mix of politics and comedy are gaining popularity, and liked by the people. The article informed about how fake news is utilized in comedy shows, and make audience sometime confused. The emerging media or entertainment can be described by the multiplying technological forces, discursive integration and ...

Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” describes a “family of equals in a society of equals” (Bozeman and Hirsch, n.d.) where the government promises equal opportunities by placing the gifted at a disadvantage. The storyline is brief and provides the foundations for debates on equality and the implication of equality on the society. Vonnegut presents a idealistic foundation in “Harrison Bergeron” as the story is unswerving in its political roots and customs of the United States as a society. It contradicts the values and historical perspectives of the American’s policy of independence and equality based on the beliefs in Social Darwinism. The ...

A particular feature of the literature is that it can send the author’s message in various ways and reach a target reader out of the crowd of ignorant ones. This can be often achieved through the hidden meaning inside a literary work or through irony, satire and caricature of the reality described. The aim of the present work is to compare and contrast Anton Chekhov’s play “The Proposal” and Guy de Maupassant’s short story “The Necklace”. In this context, the comparison will be conducted in the framework of the depicting of the same theme of gender ...

Analysis of an Argument

The speaker is arguing to a woman about how much he would like to admire her, and ultimately become sexually intimate with her if there were “time.” Based on his conviction, time is running out, since time cannot be stopped and so the speaker and woman will miss out on the opportunity to enjoy each other’s physical body and pleasures. He is also finding ways to basically make her see why she should have sex with him because it will allow time to stop (so-to-speak).

Is the argument valid?

I think that depending on the perspective of the reader, it may or may ...

Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Man That Was Used Up” is an astounding dramatic farce involving the search for truth of an unnamed narrator to discern the true secret of a distinguished war hero, General John A.B.C. Smith. Along the way, Poe illustrates a Civil War-era society that brims with a very specific type of cultural revisionism and American exceptionalism that belies the true ugliness of the nation’s atrocities underneath. Looking at this story in the context of the Jacksonian era, in which Indian removal was a very prevalent cultural practice and the upper class lionized military might borne of a ...

The ideal and real roles of women depicted in the plays The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare and The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan Women have been the subject of greater literary interest since times immemorial. They frequently serve as the means to replicate contemporary society. During the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, women were largely portrayed as the victims of a patriarch society. Modern feminism was nonexistent until the 19th century and female voice was completely subdued. “Feminists’ scholars regarded the 18th century author Mary Wollstonecraft as the original harbinger of feminism, a ...

When many people think of satire, they understand that it is a subversive approach to a certain social or political issue through the use of irony. Works like the Earl of Rochester’s “A Satire Against Reason and Mankind,” Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal or John Dryden’s MacFlecknoe all make fun of some perceived failing of its audience, whether it be the “Satire’s poking fun at rationalism and reason, Swift’s pointing out of the problems facing Ireland as a result of English ignorance, or Dryden’s ridiculing of his contemporaries’ inadequate literary criticism. However, to what end do ...

Introduction

“Animal Farm” was written by George Orwell. It is a satire and political literature. The original title of the novel is “Animal Farm: A Fairy Story” that proves it as a fable written with a purpose. However, the author did a wonderful attempt to present the political crisis and tyrannical government through a story of animals in a farm. It is a dystopian and allegorical novel. Orwell’s intention is to reflect Russian Revolution and reign of Stalin in Soviet Union. The novel is about the life of animals in a farm. They wanted to rebel and save themselves from the clutches of men and set new ...

And Chan-Wook Park

Given the increasing globalization of the film industry, Hollywood directors have begun to pull increasingly from international sources for their creative output. Looking into the small-but-potent international film markets, often directors from other countries are given the opportunity to cross-over into Hollywood. This is certainly the case with Asian cinema; many Asian film directors who have achieved success in Japan and Hong Kong have been given the chance to make films in America in order to provide a rapidly-consuming film market with the variety and quality it desires. In the 1980s and 1990s, two Asian directors in particular crossed over ...

Literature

John Dryden is known to be among the greatest playwrights and poet after William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. His mastery in poetry and drama gives him a worldwide recognition in the history of literature. He ranked second to Shakespeare in writing the greatest heroic play of the century in 1670 and 71, which was titled ‘The Conquest of Granada’ and other great works in drama and poetry. He wrote other great works such as tragicomedy, comitragedy, tragedy and comedy. His poems, however, were criticism on English writers such as William Shakespeare and Jonson (Richetti, 123). He analyzed their work to ...

Chuck Palahniuk’s debut novel Fight Club is one of the most well-known and incendiary novels about the postmodern male, describing a frenetic journey by the book’s unnamed narrator to reclaim his manhood. Over the course of the novel, the narrator pairs up with charismatic id figure Tyler Durden to achieve catharsis and reinvigorating his life through unlicensed ‘fight clubs’ in which characters can beat each other senseless in order to feel alive. The depictions of violence in the novel are gruesome and immediate, showing both their appeal to the characters and the underlying weaknesses in their ideology. In ...

Annotated Bibliography

Bohn, William E. “The Development of John Dryden’s Literary Criticism.” PMLA 22.1 (1907): 56-139. In Bohn’s article, the author discusses Dryden’s critical essays, particularly in terms of his use of satire. Here, Bohn notes the way in which Dryden used a satire as its own form of criticism; “satire is itself but a sort of criticism; it has always been the form assumed by the highly trained, versifying prose-understanding” (118). Dryden was never one to give literary judgments one at a time, but rather to convey his ideas in a more abstract way, which is where his ...

Question 1

John Adam’s opera Dr. Atomic is about the history of Robert Oppenheimer and others who participated in the famous 1940’s Manhattan project, to create the atomic bomb. Dr. Atomic is set in Los Amos in New Mexico hours before the test-firing of the first atomic bomb. Postmodernism is the movement in literature, visual arts, music and drama which rejected the Victorian standards of how art should be made, consumed and meant (Heartney 1). Dr. Atomic has different aspects of opera that have differed from the Victorian standards making it postmodern. A key characteristic of postmodernism is that ...

The 1970s was a decade of the public’s disappointment with the government and its policies, domestic and foreign, social and economic. It was the time of counterculture and various movements and protests that followed the example of the civil rights movement. The most important topics for the American people were the distrust for the government after the long-lasting Vietnam War that weakened not only the United States, whose economic situation was already devastating, but other countries, including Vietnam, Cambodia and their neighbors; the Watergate scandal that made Americans doubt that the county is in fact a democratic one, the state ...

[PROFESSOR]

Angels of Despair: A Researched Paper on Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” In today's society it is often the case that we exclude the people and the things that do not make sense to us, or more often than not, do not fit in the rules and regulations of good "society." This is especially true in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings." The story takes place in early times, as a baby lies dying from an unknown disease. In a twist of events, a dirty angel falls from the sky ...

George Gershwin was one of the most prolific composers in America for the twenty century, excelling in the field of popular song compositions and classical compositions. He wrote a lot of music but the pieces that made him famous and also remained in the history of music as representative for his own style were two orchestral compositions like Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris and also the opera Porgy and Bess. George Gershwin was born in 26 September 1898 in Brooklyn, New York. Gershwin came from a Russian and Lithuanian Jewish heritage and he was the second child ...

Plot Summary

The Great Gatsby is a book that focuses and tries to give the events of a fictional town and characters. The plot is focused on Nick a former graduate scholar and a war veteran who is the narrator of the story that the novel aims at putting across. Nick takes up employment as a salesperson in the City of New York, where he settles and takes up residence in long island near the exclusive mansion of the rich mysterious jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is known in the town due to the exclusive and huge parties that he holds in his residence. During Nick’s ...

Almost everyone likes to watch comedy television; there is a reason that there are so many comedy television shows on every day. Satire TV gave examples of shows that have grabbed the attention of many viewers, drawing them to their screens night after night. Some of the shows were Da Ali G Show, The Colbert Report, The Boondocks, and Saturday Night Out, among others. These shows got people glued to their screen because of the satire that they brought with. Some scholars insist that it is the comical part of the political shows that attract the attention of the viewers ...

Communication

1b. Satire is an influential form of art that has the power to highlight the insufficiencies and paucities in specific human behaviors as well as the social issues that are eventual outcomes of these in a manner in which they transform into ridiculous, often hysterical, which is thus humorous and engaging, and finally reach a wide range of audience. Satire also has the capacity to safeguard its creator from guilt and accountability for the criticism, as it is implicitly expressed instead of being overtly expressed; and eventually, it develops into a powerful tool for dissidents in challenging or domineering political and social ...

“Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift is considered one of greatest satirical literary works in the world literature heritage. To the great extent “Candide” ranks Voltaire on the same level of significance as one of the greatest satirists in the world literature. Satire is “a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule”. (Literary Devices) The goal of satire is improving humanity by means of criticizing and mocking its foolishness and weakness. In satire a writer uses fictional characters, which actually hint at real people ...

Introduction

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a famous comedy movie released in 1975. The movie depicted the quest of King Arthur and his companions for the quest of searching the Holy Grail. The entire movie lies in the genre of satire in which parody of king Arthur has been shown (YouTube 1). However, the scene that is selected for this paper displays black knight fight with King Arthur. This scene best depicts the parody of King Arthur and his peasants making it the most hilarious scene of the movie. The scene is meant to communicate the acts of bravery ...

The May fourth causes and happenings

The May fourth movement is a period in China’s history that was characterized by political unrest and demonstration in streets mainly caused by students in protest of the nature of political instability and governmental failure towards protection of China’s sovereignty and its people. These protests took place in the year 1919 and were China’s movement towards democracy and change in political system that saw control brought to the masses and away from a few people in power. It also saw the abolishment of traditional systems that had influenced the negative political situations and resulted to the adoption of ...

Fiction and satire characterizes the two literature works; the modest proposal by Jonathan Swift and the Ones Who Walks Away from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin. Satire is a stylistic device that is used to communicate a serious issue in an indirect manner; fiction also serves the same meaning because it presents as issue to the audience in a similar manner. In essence, the two stylistic devices are critical in literature as they offer the audience a chance to inquire and interrogate the narrator’s statements in a more detailed manner. The Modest Proposal and the Ones Who Walks Away from Omelas present a social ...

1 . Socrates suddenly awakes and finds himself in medieval France. At a bookstore he buys a copy of Montaigne and reads “Of Cannibals” and “Of Coaches.” Would he agree with Montaigne’s ideas? If so, with what would he agree? With what would he disagree? In writing your answer, be sure to describe Socrates’ (or Greek) philosophy and what was different in Montaigne’s time. Despite the disparity between the early modern Europe and the ancient Athens, it is possible to find some affinities underlying the ideas of Socrates and Montaigne. However, if Socrates suddenly awoke and found himself in ...

- Dr. Atomic The opera focuses on the stress and anxiety that the residents of Los Alamos were subjected to when the first atomic bomb was being tested. The opera has postmodern aspects as it evokes human emotions and depicts the struggle that people face. Although it is based on the events that resulted from the world war, acting of the opera encompasses modern art. The lyrics and music that is played along is of a postmodern nature. Postmodernism seeks to departure from the dominant modern approaches. Adams achieves this by giving the various characters in the film a chance ...

English

The story is a critique of the hypocrisy of the Puritan society and focused on the materialist nature of the people. The incarnation of the Devil and the gloomy setting made the story a classic of the romantic era. Irvin used mythological touch and satire to denounce materialist and greedy trends of the society. The place of the story was set a few miles away from the city of Boston in the State of Massachusetts. The setting of the main story is a forest, a dark and gloomy place. The woods were abundant in swamps, to quote from the original story, “he took ...

Andy Warhol was an artist in the pop art. He explored the relationships between advertisement, celebrity culture, and artistic expression. Warhol was very successful as an illustrator of commercial art. He is however known for being controversial in art. His artwork is composed of different types of media such as painting, photography, hand drawing, printmaking, music, film, sculpture, and silk screening. He also pioneered computer generated art. He used collaborators to help him in accomplishing his art (The Warhol, 2013). Warhol focused on the popular people or items to form the subject of his art. Warhol focused on producing ...

Whether or not a film remains as true to the novel as possible or far it deviates from the original has been argued by critics and audiences for a century now. There are many major differences between Jane Austen’s book Pride and Prejudice and the 2005 film adaptation that starred Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet. The book, published in 1813, was intended as a satire and a comedy of manners. The film released in 2005 was a full-blown romance. The time period is different. Much of the dialog is different. In fact, aside from the names and some of the classic lines from ...

Many writers have found themselves writing about society in an indirect way through the features and attributes they reflect in their writings. The same can be said about The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay which was a representation of class boundaries and therefore had an impact on the consciousness of the public. The conventions that Gay uses continue to influence society today as it satirizes and mocks what society creates as societal stereotypes. Class boundaries in London at the time had caused major disintegration that became inevitable because of the nature of the problems that the disintegration caused. The ...

The poem “I am nobody, who are you?” is written by Emily Dickinson. This poem is published in the year 1891. The poem is about a child who asks question from others, and tells about him. This poem is an interesting as it tells clearly how somebody is living in this world, and how nobody is living in this world. By nobody the poetess means those people who do not consider themselves important, those who do not give priority to themselves. They consider the rights of others, and respect others. While somebody are those who consider themselves the privileged ...

Introduction

Orthodox Jews in Denver are similar in their nature and characteristics. They have their own sets of values and traditions unique to their historical origins. Being familiar with other cultures and subcultures helps us in becoming culturally sensitive and globalized individuals. Extensive research and exposure are required in order to gain such familiarities. One of the most popular Judaism institutions in Colorado is the Denver Academy of Torah. Jews may differ in the way they worship from other religious denominations since their beliefs differ from one community to the other. The institution aims to teach Orthodox Jew in ...

All over the country many poor children, mostly Catholics lived in squalor as their families were extremely poor to feed them and keep them clothed. Jonathan Swift has argued, with hard-edged economic reasoning in addition to the self-righteous moral stance, for finding way to turn the problem into a solution. His proposal is to fatten up the undernourished Irish children and feed them to the rich Irish land-owners. Children from poor families could be bought and sold in the meat market from the age of one year, he has argued, this will combat the unemployment and overpopulation, sparing families at ...

“Day of the Oprichnik” was written by the modern Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin. He is an outstanding representative of Russian postmodernism, conceptualist, the brightest prose writer and playwright. It is difficult to remain indifferent to his novels. One of his unique works is "Day of the Oprichnik", where the author describes Russia in 2028. The novel was written in 2006, and many critics consider that it is the best Sorokin′s work. The novel is devoted to Grigory Lukyanovich Skuratov-Belsky, nicknamed Malyuta. He was a famous oprichnik of Ivan the Terrible, and one who was not executed, as the ...

Setting the Stage: The Themes in Chapters 1-3

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is a hybrid between a manifesto of ideas, brought forth by characters with only a patina of depth, and a story with the depth closer to a graphic novel than that of a traditional tome. The opening three chapters bring the majority of the significant themes or ideas at work in the book. The director explains how this particular Utopia provides people bred to order, using artificial fertilization to grow babies inside bottles. Ultimately, they are not born but instead are decanted. Each new person is assigned to one of five social castes, from the Alphas, who have the most ...

Even if you have never watched extremely controversial and phenomenally addictive series Breaking Bad (which I am sure you must have heard of), and even if you have never listened to to your closest friend ranting about how deeply he was impressed by its finale (though I am certain you would have heard it if you really listened) and even you have never stumbled upon its trailer on youtube (which I am deeply convinced you must have, just did not pay enough attention to), the fact that numerous publications including such well-known and trusted sources as the New York ...

Should the physical, social and emotional differences between Gods own creatures create a great rift between the creatures? The Butter Battle a book by Dr. Seuss elucidates the story of two different races, Yook and Zook, that are in conflict over which side to batter the bread. This conflict rises to greater heights that it creates tension between the two races and each keeps arming themselves ready for any possible attack. Gulliver's Travels a short story by Jonathan Swift explains how Gulliver a surgeon from Nottinghamshire, England traveled to the Lilliputians islands a place where he finds tiny people of about 6 inches height. ...

Every human being we have encountered or will ever encounter is a complex end result of multiple influences. Every entity that he is exposed to leaves an impression on his thought process and often times if we sit and analyze one particular person in detail, we surely find remnants of those who have impressed him in his actions and words. It is therefore possible to critique or appraise him with reference to his inspirations. This paper aims to dwell on the work of the distinguished fiction writer T.C Boyle and in doing so will highlight the influence of another prominent ...

Mark Twain is a well known American novelist who effectively utilized his amusing personality in creating humor and satire in his writings. Twain authored a number of excellent books during his lifetime. The works done by author are recognized for irony, dialect, mockery, satire and humor. Majority of his work establishes him as a humorist. This effective powerful writing style makes him standing apart from other writers. Twain uses satire and humor to mock and depict human weaknesses. Twain utilized various literary elements with a focus on satire to display various critical issues related to politics, religion and society. This paper intends to ...

The American media often presents itself as unbiased, but in reality, most research that has been done into the topic has discovered that American media is heavily biased. There are liberal and conservative biases within the media, and determining where the bias lies in a particular type of media or network is important when it comes to analyzing the information received from that media outlet. This paper will deal with two different pieces of research that focus on American media: the first, entitled “Selective Exposure to Cable News and Immigration in the US: The Relationship Between FOX News, CNN, and ...

Introduction

Satire is essentially used in a number of literature works to show vice or foolishness in organizations, humans, or even governments. Satire uses ridicule, irony, or sarcasm. For instance, it is used to effect social or political change, or to prevent it. A satiric can actually direct satire toward a person, a whole nation, or even the world. Sometimes it is serious, acting to expose or as a protest, or can be comical once used in poking fun at someone or something. For this reason, there are various faces of satire including satire in literature and political satire. This essay analyzes “NSA's spying ...

Modern culture is so saturated in satire that it is difficult to find works that pursue the authentic and the sincere. Once works like 1984 and Brave New World opened the floodgates of cynicism and skepticism that the events of the two World Wars made to seem the proper perspective. Today, works like The Onion make satire a part of the culture. Popular programs such as Saturday Night Live and Conan live off satire, which means that members of modern culture look at life with a half-satiric eye. In the time of the first modern satirists, such as Voltaire and Jonathan ...

Thesis Statement:

Rick mercer changed the way of political comedy and made a difference not only in Ontario but all over Canada by his sharp political satires and shows. Rick mercer has an opinion about everything that is in news. By this paper, you will learn about Rick mercer, his life, career, and achievements. Rick mercer is a known political satirist, writer, television star, journalist and comedy legend of Canada. Rick is a real hero of Canadian television and has anchored several famous television shows of the Canadian television history. Rick mercer was born in middle cove, St. John’s, Canada on 17th ...

‘Name’

‘Instructor’s Name’ ‘The Modest Proposal’ written by Jonathan Swift in the year 1729, is a straight faced satire, whereby the author employs motifs and symbols to enlighten the reader about the plight of the impoverished people of his land. In this pamphlet the narrator urges people to sell young children of the Ireland for hard cash, so that they can be served as a food to the upper class people. In this way, he proposes to lighten the economic burden of taking care of young children, and what more earn some profit out of them. Obviously, the author is ...

“When we read Dickenswe are reading all sorts of other things at the same time—plot, character, moral dilemma, historical predicament, and so forth—but we can see all these in their full complexity only if we attend to the illuminating play of style” (Alter 1996). Indeed, Charles Dickens is a master of style and a versatile genius. He weaves magic with his words that takes the readers into a rapturous world of imagination. The power of his words and imagination manifested in his depiction of simple stories and building of characters make him one of the most popular English novelists of ...

As a dramaturge in seventeenth-century France, Molière effectively uses a number of literary techniques to criticize religious hypocrites. Under the strict regime of absolutist Louis XIV, Molière wrote plays primarily for the king. However, being a natural dissident, he disguised critique through satire. The play, Le Tartuffe, has become a household name, and the word “tartuffe” has become a common word in French, meaning “hypocrite”. In this play, Orgon, the head of a noble household, is blinded and swindled by a religious hypocrite, named Tartuffe. Tartuffe manages to treat Orgon’s family with disdain, and disrespect, even to the point of attempting to seduce ...

Al Franken was one of the original writers on Saturday Night Live, one of the longest running shows in television history; and one of the most socially relevant. Although it cannot match the more than 65 years that Meet the Press (which first aired on November 6, 1947) , part of the longevity of both shows can be attributed to is that they stay on top of relevant current events. There is a post circulating on Facebook that says, “I get my news from Comedy Central and my comedy from Fox News.” . Saturday Night Live was one of the main influences ...

In Douglas Rushkoff’s article “Bart Simpson: Prince of Irreverence,” he refers to the FOX sitcom The Simpsons as “the closest thing in America to a national media literacy program.” (Graff et al, p. 241) Within this program, the Simpson family deconstructs memes and cultural landmarks of television at a breakneck pace, holding a lantern up to the way that media works and displaying it for all to see. The Simpsons educates its viewers to view media with a more critical eye due to its irreverence and ability to recognize and lampoon the structure and politics of the media industry. This is accomplished ...

Introduction

This is a speech where the speaker persuasively requests the citizens to elect him. After reading it, we realize that it qualifies to be rhetoric hence we can analyze it rhetorically. Concerning the rhetorical situation, the occasion that leads to the opportunity or need for persuasion in this speech is campaign. Therefore, the historical occasion is the campaign by various politicians hence Roversi’s objective in this speech is to persuade citizens to elect him as their country representative. He establishes his personal credibility, confidence, and character in a convincing manner. This is what is termed as ethos. In addition, his ...

Introduction

For many centuries and across many continents and societies, poetry is one of the literary arts that have been embraced and used by poets and other lingual professionals to address various aspects that affect the day to day organization of the society. Taking a rhythmic route and characterized by various languages such as symbolism and phonaesthetics, poems have been introduced and adopted into the society and later passed on from one generation to the next, in order to educate, entertain, rebuke, teach, correct and direct, among many other roles that they play in our society. Various poets have in ...

Compare and Contrast Absalom and Achitophel and 2 Samuel

Introduction This paper gives a critical and in-depth analysis of Absalom and Achitophel. It does this by comparing it to the story of King David which is recorded in the second book of Samuel of the bible. This book presents a story parallel to King David’s. It was written by John Dryden in 1681. In deed, Absalom and Achitophel is a political satire which alludes to the bible to unveil the succession controversies which confronted England towards the end of the rein of King Charles II. In the first section which was solely written by Dryden himself, he gives ...

The times in which Jonathan Swift wrote were certainly grim enough to inspire writing about what a utopian society might resemble, or what it might take to make society better. As a priest in Ireland, Swift was certainly in a position to see the plight of the Irish poor. The indifference of the British government to this plight was the motivation for one of the first major rhetorical pieces to use sarcasm as a device; his essay “A Modest Proposal” gave Irish anger a voice that continues to resonate today (Spratt). The suggestion of that “proposal,” which was to sell the infants of the ...

Use of satire to validate the story

Use of satire to validate the story

Introduction

Some stories seem to fictional but there is a deeper understanding and reflection of reality in those, represented through various characters and plots. ‘Moscow to the End of the Line’ is a similar pseudo-autobiographical prose poem written by Venedikt Erofeev which tells the story of an alcoholic cable-fitter who just got fired from his job. It is a hilarious story; the reader is kept entertained from the beginning till the end due to the ‘drunken’ narrator and his jokes. But it is in fact, a reflection of the social and political scenario in Soviet Union during ...

The political cartoon is a very effective way of driving home a message to the public in general as it exposes the vicissitudes and inherent weaknesses of politicians. The first cartoon features a congressman running after the elephant which is the Republican Party on the sequester issue but threatening to decapitate himself with a huge scissors called ‘Sequester Scissors’. The text says ‘Running with Sequester Scissors can be Hazardous to Your Health’ and is a clear example that the decapitation is imminent, a self-decapitation so to speak. The cartoon is partisan political satire as it attempts to ridicule the Democrats who are self-destroying themselves and ...

The political cartoon is a very effective way of driving home a message to the public in general as it exposes the vicissitudes and inherent weaknesses of politicians. The first cartoon features a congressman running after the elephant which is the Republican Party on the sequester issue but threatening to decapitate himself with a huge scissors called ‘Sequester Scissors’. The text says ‘Running with Sequester Scissors can be Hazardous to Your Health’ and is a clear example that the decapitation is imminent, a self-decapitation so to speak. The cartoon is partisan political satire as it attempts to ridicule the Democrats who are self-destroying themselves and ...

The Importance of Being Earnest, a play by Oscar Wilde, is often considered a classic, and ahead of its time in terms of social commentary. The play, a comedy of errors in which people put on fictitious personalities to get what they want, touches on the triviality of Victorian culture and the institution of marriage, among other things. Wilde's work delights in its ravaging of the continental lifestyle that many rich people in the Victorian era experienced, the play does not reach to the point of moralizing, or providing solutions or lessons to be learned from the work. Instead, the play is ...