Preview

The 3 Types of Satire

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
277 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The 3 Types of Satire
Satire notes: Analytical Reading

3 techniques of satire:
1. Exaggeration: Represents something beyond normal boundaries so that it becomes absurd, and reveals its faults.
2. Incongruity: Presents things that are out of place.
3. Reversal: Presents the opposite of the normal order.
4. Parody: Imitates the techniques or style of a person, place, or thing.

The fallowing is taken in context from an excerpt from A Modest Proposal

Can you locate an example of exaggeration in the passage from “A Modest Proposal”?
Swift advocating that the rich eat the poor to solve overpopulation and poverty problems is an example of exaggeration.

Are there any examples of incongruity in the passage you just read from “A Modest Proposal”?
A dish made out of children at a gathering of wealthy ladies is an example of incongruity.

Is there an example of reversal in the passage from “A Modest Proposal”?
Portraying children as a food item as opposed to something to be cherished and protected is an example of reversal. Parody draws upon cultural and historical context. Are there any examples of parody in “A Modest Proposal”?
Swift parodies the language of politicians of that time by mimicking their speech and logic throughout “A Modest Proposal.” In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift reveals the consequences of dehumanization through satire. His text was a wake-up call to the English people. Driven by anger and the knowledge that literature can be an effective means of change, “A Modest Proposal” reminds us to be careful of our reliance on definitions.

ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss- ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss- ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss- ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss- ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss-
ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss-

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Blazing Saddles, a Mel Brooks film, is a perfect example of satire. The main object of the movie is to make fun of the western genre of films. Mel Brooks is notorious for his satires of many different films and film genres, and Blazing Saddles follows true to form as, in some opinions, one of the funniest films made. Many of the film's ideas and problems are common in most westerns, although Mel Brooks has added a twist. In addition, the movie pokes fun at a more modern theme, racism.…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the beginning of “A Modest Proposal” Swift starts off using logical appeal, the use of facts…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    If Swifts ‘Modest Proposal’ is satire, as everyone seems to think, then I am even more repulsed in the writing than I was before. Everyone at the webinar the other day thought the little baby was such a cute, darling, little thing, and I agree, life is beautiful. To find humor in, or joke about, killing and eating babies is quite disgusting actually. Finding humour in something so disturbing, grotesque and violent, is quite assaulting to human dignity. The fact, that the author distanced himself from the piece by writing anonymously points to the fact he knew of its graphic assault, whether satire or not.…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jonathan Swift establishes credibility through rewording few of his acquaintances: “…a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London… a grave author, an eminent French physician… a very worthy person, a true lover of his country, and whose virtues I highly esteem… the famous Psalmanazar, a native of the island Formosa.” However, because the information he gathers are from people that others would not know of, his credibility is questionable. Nevertheless, he also gives very detailed and specific facts that help support his argument. Basically, Swift appeals to his audience through rhetorical literary techniques—logos, ethos, and pathos. The entire proposal is a measurement of Swift’s ethos and logos. The way he presents…

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “A Modest Proposal”, Jonathan Swift reaches out to the readers about social problems that the great town and county are going through. I believe Swift is trying to tell the readers in a satirical way that the government and political party are not doing anything in the country to solve the social problems. Swift believed the only way to catch their attention was to write the essay “A Modest Proposal”. Swift used satire in his essay to inform people of Ireland how high poverty, hunger, and death rates were not getting any help from the government.…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    strategies, but it may help to use some of Swift’s satirical methods in “A Modest Proposal.”…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” incorporates satire in his writing that exposes England’s economical exploitation of Ireland. The full title includes, “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Public” (Swift 558). His essay, very skillfully, brings shame to and sheds light upon the impoverishment of the Irish people at the hands of England’s greed for profits. He employed satire and irony as an effective tool to make the reader understand the state of oppression of the Irish using the most extreme statements. In his writing, although grotesque, Swift’s use of satire effectively confronts the abuses and shortcomings of the political and economic structure of the time, and he successfully uses sarcasm as a constructive method to criticize the social issues faced by the poor Irish natives.…

    • 1172 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Jonathan Swift, a celebrated name during the eighteenth century, was an economist, a writer, and a cleric who was later named Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. Although Swift took on many different roles throughout his career, the literary form of satire seemed to be his realm of expertise. Because satire flourished during the eighteenth century, Jonathan Swift is arguably one of the most influential political satirists of his time. In one of his famous essays, A Modest Proposal, Swift expresses his anger and frustration towards the oppression of the Irish by the English government. In order to gain attention from his audience, Swift proposes the outrageous thesis that the solution to Ireland’s problem of poverty is to feed children of the poor to the wealthy, aristocratic families. To whom Swift is directing his satire…

    • 1309 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Swift intended to parody similar pamphlets that were being circulated at the time. His diction throughout the piece, including the word modest in the title, highlights this effect. Of course, one’s proposals are modest and offered “humbly.” With word choice like this, Swift is mocking the false modesty in the tone of many of the pamphlets of his contemporaries; their style may have professed deference, but their proposals displayed audacity.…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Jonathan Swift 'sA Modest Proposal, the tone of a Juvenalian satire is evident in its text. Swift uses the title of his essay to begin his perfect example of a Juvenalian satire. Swift gives a moral justification to the dehumanization of the Irish and attempts to provide 'logical ' solutions to their problems. Despite Swift 's use of belittling language towards the Irish, he uses positive strategy to make his true point known. Swift declares children as the underlying cause of the parents ' inability to obtain a successful occupation. Swift 's scornful disregard for infants is one ploy in attracting the attention of the population. Swift uses a rhetorical style that causes the reader to loathe the narrator, who is depicted as a member of…

    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Although, Swift presents his arguments in this essay his overall purpose is to not persuade the reader into agreeing with him, instead his purpose is to entertain his audience through the use of satire. His proposal to kill and eat newborn children sounds so incredibly morbid and wrong that the reader will not be able to take Swift’s arguments seriously. For example, at the beginning of this essay he talks about a beggar’s lifestyle…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    After voicing his frustrations to his government to no avail, he saunters down an alternate route. While digesting his most influential and recognized piece, all readers nod along with the author’s point: a change needs to occur in order for the Irish poor to end their suffering. That is until Swift mentions his plan, which involves raising babies, harvesting them at the ripe age of one, and selling their carcasses as a delicacy to the rich. Until the man reveals the details of his proposal, a majority of the readers nod along, eager to see Swift help the poor that plague the nation. Though no laughing matter like Lichtenberg suggests of satire, the poor do not realize the “hit” against them until they are too deep in their support for Swift. Instead of “[rousing] laughter”, the satirist rouses support from those “who are hit”, as he leads the poor and downtrodden along, appearing like he possesses a true solution to their problems. “A Modest Proposal” exists to criticize the Irish government for its lack of action in helping the poor improve their status, but first, Swift mockingly hits the poor by suggesting the sale of poor…

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    the bronx

    • 576 Words
    • 2 Pages

    You’ve just finished reading Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” so you should have a better understanding of what satire is and how it can be achieved. In this assignment you will choose a real and significant social issue and then write about a satiric solution, using “A Modest Proposal”…

    • 576 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A Modest Proposal Essay

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages

    One of Jonathon Swift’s most famous works, “A Modest Proposal” needs to be read after the reader gets a little familiar with Swift himself and why he wrote it. Once you realize the situation and the author’s unique writing ability and thought process the proposal seems a little less farfetched and less sickening. I am in no way in agreement with the proposal just more understanding of where it came from and why he did it. The meaning of the proposal takes a major hit when the situation at hand takes a twist from Swift’s personal situation.…

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Your Own Modest Proposal

    • 500 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Assignment: After reading Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” write your own half-serious satirical solution to a problem in modern American society.…

    • 500 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays