Satire is a form of literary genre or form. When you use satire vices, follies, or abuses are held up to ridicule. Satire isn't just to create humor in writing but to also create social criticism using wit as a weapon. Today satire can be found in many places: literature, plays, commentary, and media.
Satire isn't something that has come out recently, its been around for an extremely long time. One of the earliest examples of satire is The Satire of the Trades. It is an Egyptian writing from the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. The readers of this text were students, tired of studying. It argues that their lot as scribes is useful, and their lot far superior to that of ordinary men. Some scholars thought the text was supposed to be serious but this was the beginning of satire.
In the 20th century satire was used to make serious commentary on social changes in society. A satirical film called The Great Dictator by Charlie Chaplin is a satire on Adolf Hitler. For many writes and movie producers satire is used as one of their main weapons. H.L. Mencken, a social critic, said that “one horse-laugh is worth then thousand syllogisms” in the persuasion of the public to accept criticism. You could say that satire is trying to “correct” social behavior. “The reason satirists don’t just write moral stories encouraging people to good worth, and the reason they feel warranted in showing his anger and fury at the common faults and vices of men is that the satirist's world is not a world of basic good accidentally gone astray, where every man would seek good if he know how or were shown the way, but rather it is one of fools who either claim to possess virtue already, or who have already rejected it, claiming that vice is (or is as good as) virtue. “ (Robert Harris). What this quote is saying is that you can’t just show naive man facts and try and make him change but you can show him the same thing but in a satirical way and he thinks that maybe change could be possible. He gets to figure out the idea of change by himself.
Often time’s authors use satire to get their ideas across to others. Satirical authors often mock society in the way they feel it would be in the future, if actions the society takes goes to far. Satire does have a flaw though. Sometimes the only people who understand the meaning of satire are the people who agree with the satire’s criticism. If a person doesn’t agree with the satire’s criticism they might see the text as unsophisticated or stupid. An example of this scenario is the television show South Park. This show is said to be one of the greatest form of satire that was a production in the history of television. Many people think that South Park is hilarious and they love to watch it but others find the show stupid, and immature. Satire can raise valid points about society but its nearly impossible to point out an error that is normal in a culture when many people are so fixed in their culture. So to many satire becomes wuite irrelevant when bringing up social problems. Satire is definitely essential to a free society. Satirists often are forerunners of error in a society. Satirists end up exposing “evils” that we commit every day. For example, a person being mislead in an advertisement and still buying that product. When people do this they end up giving advertisers power to keep misleading consumers. Satire still being around also shows how free of a society we have. We have the ability to point out a flaw in such a manner where it makes fun of the flaw. Luckily we have the ability to criticize powers that people don’t understand. Satire hardly has the ability to be a force of change in society because it is so limited but not everyone has to hear a satirists “voice” for their ideas to be heard. Because society can change because one person heard or read something.
Satire is definitely also a form of persuasion. The tone satirists use can often be read as persuasion or irony. It can “plant a seed” in a persons’ head and make them think. The text has an underlying meaning that sometimes a person can understand and sometimes a person just cant read between the lines. Satirical televisions shows are getting to be extremely popular now-a-days. Many satirical shows include; David Letterman, Saturday Night Live and the Colbert Report. Televisions seems to be the easiest way for satirist to get a point across because it is understood with humor involved. Another famous satirical work is A Modest Proposal by Jonathon Swift. In his writing he expresses the need for the people of Ireland to start eating children of the poor. He explains that by eating these poor children, it will let the wealthy people and their children thrive along with the community. Swift is trying to promote the consumption of one-year-old children to eliminate the growing number of poor citizens in Ireland. He uses an extreme form of irony to point out the inhumane conditions in colonized Ireland.
Satire can be extremely entertaining for people now a days, and it also tries to voice an opinion on problems in society today. Satire can use irony, sarcasm, ridicule, to expose folly. Satire can be seen as a way for people to explain their concerns about something and maybe someone might read or see what they have to say and decide they believe in the same cause. Satire is definitely something that isn’t a recent thing, its been around for an extremely long time. Satirical writers try to shine light on things that many people might never have brought up but they put a humerous twist on it. It makes it almost easier to read and understand. Even though satire doesn’t have a great impact on society it does bring up problems that are “swept under the carpet”.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Response to "A Modest Proposal"
In Jonathan Swift’s satire, “A Modest Proposal” , Swift makes a crazy solution to the people of Ireland to eat the young of the poor people. He proposes several alot of reasons for the solution to the problem of an over-abundance of poor people living on the streets of Ireland. But, the author never answered the question about how to pay for killing the children so his argument became a lot less effective.
It is the author’s opinion that the solution given inside the proposal was not meant to be a serious answer to the problem; instead it was a call to arms for the people of Ireland to begin thinking about the growing problem of the poor, and to come up with answers that problem. The solution the author gives is not exactly persuasive but the idea of it is the part that gets the reader to actually think about it.
The person the author is trying to convince to do this is obviously the people of Ireland, where the problem of the poor is actually happening. The essay’s suggestion was shocking of course; I mean eating babies is a way to save the economy? Come on. But he presented relevant facts and really had support for his issue.
Swift really got into depth when talking about the suggestion. He included possible preparations for the children and also the clear financial benefits. Swift created many pamphlets but this one was the most sarcastic . And “A Modest Proposal” was the last of his writings about Ireland. The time period when this pamphlet came out was when the people of Ireland were extremely poor. Many women were widowed and had no way of supporting their families. And many times the children were not cared for, and they ended up being thieves and what not. Is solution was economically “just”. If the children were used as food they would be more appreciated because they would be needed to feed the Irish people.
But swift really wanted the wealthy people to change! The rich had been criticizing the poor because they were not helping solve the problems they were faced with in Ireland. He really wanted a response from the people who read “A Modest Proposal”. He wanted to know what they though, obviously. Because the idea of doing what he suggested in this writing was outrageous. But within all of the silly ideas he “hides” some practical solutions into the writing like levying a tax on imported goods, using goods only made in Ireland, and doing away with vanity and comfort. So the whole writing wasn’t exactly satirical.
It’s funny that Swift calls the children a burden to their parents. He really believes that these children would do the best good in the community as food for others. This writing is ironic also, because no one would ever be able to take the proposal seriously. Swift says how it is melancholy to see children and beggars on the street. That for some reason, he believes the children should be put up to good use. It seems like Swift has some resentment towards the beggars on the street. This is clear when Swift says, "it is very well known that they are dying, and rotting , by cold and famine, and filth, and vermin . . . they cannot get work and consequently pine away for want of nourish.". This is when you realize that he wants to pretty much getting rid of beggars in his country. Swift ends up basically saying that rich children help advance Ireland and the poor children are nothing but a burden to everyone around them. He also compares the meal of eating to children to a meal where you are eating a pig. He elaborates on how many ways you can cook the child and the assortment of things to place in the meal. But he never mentions what the poor people end up gaining after selling their children. Do they go back to begging? Who knows? Swift obviously isn’t trying to harm anyone, he is just trying to make everyone rich. A get rich quick scheme you could say.
This story was definitely interesting, and Im sure many people who read this thought that it was actually reasonable. Swift tries to shine light on a growing problem back then in Ireland, but he does it in a way to just get people thinking. That he clearly doesn’t want people eating children, but he wants people to try and come up with ways to save their economy and communities. But over all I loved it, it was really humorous and I’m glad I got to read it.
It is the author’s opinion that the solution given inside the proposal was not meant to be a serious answer to the problem; instead it was a call to arms for the people of Ireland to begin thinking about the growing problem of the poor, and to come up with answers that problem. The solution the author gives is not exactly persuasive but the idea of it is the part that gets the reader to actually think about it.
The person the author is trying to convince to do this is obviously the people of Ireland, where the problem of the poor is actually happening. The essay’s suggestion was shocking of course; I mean eating babies is a way to save the economy? Come on. But he presented relevant facts and really had support for his issue.
Swift really got into depth when talking about the suggestion. He included possible preparations for the children and also the clear financial benefits. Swift created many pamphlets but this one was the most sarcastic . And “A Modest Proposal” was the last of his writings about Ireland. The time period when this pamphlet came out was when the people of Ireland were extremely poor. Many women were widowed and had no way of supporting their families. And many times the children were not cared for, and they ended up being thieves and what not. Is solution was economically “just”. If the children were used as food they would be more appreciated because they would be needed to feed the Irish people.
But swift really wanted the wealthy people to change! The rich had been criticizing the poor because they were not helping solve the problems they were faced with in Ireland. He really wanted a response from the people who read “A Modest Proposal”. He wanted to know what they though, obviously. Because the idea of doing what he suggested in this writing was outrageous. But within all of the silly ideas he “hides” some practical solutions into the writing like levying a tax on imported goods, using goods only made in Ireland, and doing away with vanity and comfort. So the whole writing wasn’t exactly satirical.
It’s funny that Swift calls the children a burden to their parents. He really believes that these children would do the best good in the community as food for others. This writing is ironic also, because no one would ever be able to take the proposal seriously. Swift says how it is melancholy to see children and beggars on the street. That for some reason, he believes the children should be put up to good use. It seems like Swift has some resentment towards the beggars on the street. This is clear when Swift says, "it is very well known that they are dying, and rotting , by cold and famine, and filth, and vermin . . . they cannot get work and consequently pine away for want of nourish.". This is when you realize that he wants to pretty much getting rid of beggars in his country. Swift ends up basically saying that rich children help advance Ireland and the poor children are nothing but a burden to everyone around them. He also compares the meal of eating to children to a meal where you are eating a pig. He elaborates on how many ways you can cook the child and the assortment of things to place in the meal. But he never mentions what the poor people end up gaining after selling their children. Do they go back to begging? Who knows? Swift obviously isn’t trying to harm anyone, he is just trying to make everyone rich. A get rich quick scheme you could say.
This story was definitely interesting, and Im sure many people who read this thought that it was actually reasonable. Swift tries to shine light on a growing problem back then in Ireland, but he does it in a way to just get people thinking. That he clearly doesn’t want people eating children, but he wants people to try and come up with ways to save their economy and communities. But over all I loved it, it was really humorous and I’m glad I got to read it.
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