Kurt Vonnegut was always among the most scandalous writers in the United States, and this is no wonder as his satire is something not ordinary and able to touch somebody’s mind and heart to the very depth of them. In “Slaughterhouse-five”, his the most famous and popular work, Vonnegut resorts to the use of the sharpest satire in order to criticize all the sad consequences that war might have for the civilians along with the soldiers participating in it. The author is also rich in the use of such effective techniques as caricature, situational irony, verbal irony, sarcasm, the grotesque which help him to send the message about all the vanity and sorrow wars are related to. In the following paper, Kurt Vonnegut’s excellent satirical skills will be examined in terms of their effectiveness and the impact they have on the audience; in addition the work of the author will be compared to the other popular examples of satire including “The Onion”. Generally, after examining a row of sources along with Kurt Vonnegut’s works it appears that the author’s satire which can be also acclaimed as his “carte-de-visite” is a very effective instrument helping in showing all the pain and sorrow along with idleness and vanity which are hidden behind wars.
Speaking about the use of satire in “Slaughterhouse-five”, it should be stated that Vonnegut appears to be a master of this genre. The most sophisticated and unexpected expressions are made by the author during the whole story-telling of this inimitable literary work. In particular, the very interesting example of this tendency by the author can be seen in a constant address to the word-expression “so it goes” which he applies about 200 times in “Slaughterhouse-five” (Beidler 107). This short but effective phrase placed in the most unexpected places helps the author to create an unbelievable spirit of satiric mockery on such phenomenon as wars, and all the problems they are connected with.
Vonnegut’s testimonial account through fictional satire
Then, with regards to Vonnegut’s ability to use nonfiction in combination with fictional satire, and the effect it produces on the audience, it seems that this literary method is the very “salt” of his works. There can be hardly found any other writer on this earth with such excellent ability to draw the attention of one’s public to some important social or political problem in such a manner. What is the most appealing and intriguing along with attracting the attention of the audience in “Slaughterhouse-five”, it is a constant shift to science-fiction episodes made by the author in order to contrast them with the real events of the war, and raffish the public as a result (Beidler 109).
Satirical techniques applied by the author
Further, discussing the way Vonnegut applies satirical techniques, it should be stated that he is very skilled in them. The reader can find a row of the most diversified literary means in the author’s works including caricature, situational irony, verbal irony, sarcasm, the grotesque. For example, the constant address to the grotesque when the author exaggerates a row of the main heroes’ qualities and abilities. One more illustration is in caricature. Vonnegut constantly makes a parallel with a well-known work called a “Tralfamadorian novel”. Using such enriched language, the author seems to draw the attention of his public to the issue of war’s idleness and vanity. He encourages his audience to really think about all the sad outcomes wars are connected to including deaths, psychological traumas, pain, troubles, breakdown and disappointment (Gehring 71).
The similarities and the differences between Vonnegut and “The Onion”
Finally, addressing the similarity and the differences in the styles of the other satirists and the one by Vonnegut, it seems that the author holds the palm of victory in the area of criticizing certain developments within human society. In particular, comparing the works by Vonnegut with those by “The Onion”, it appears that both of these masters of satire use unusual and sometimes even strange methods and grotesques in order to captivate the attention of the public, and to make people think about the most difficult problems of nowadays. And, with regards to the contrast between the two styles, it should be stated that Vonnegut is much more effective in the use of varied satiric techniques than “The Onion” especially of such ones as caricature, situational irony, verbal irony, and sarcasm.
Concluding on all the information related above, it should be stated that the inimitable works by Kurt Vonnegut including “Slaughterhouse-five” and ” Wailing shall be in All Streets”, though being severely criticized for their failure to correspond to the standards set by governmental censorship organizations at times, present their valuable lessons for a wide public to understand all the vanity and idleness behind such phenomenon in human world as wars. The use of satire enriches the author’s style in an incredible way which makes it very easy to accept difficult ideas concerning all the pains, troubles, unneeded causalities which stand behind any war. Thus, the wider implication of Vonnegut’s work is in helping humanity to understand that war is not a successful way to development and prosperity in the world neither for humanity in general nor for any particular nation.
Works Cited
Beidler, Philip. “What Kurt Vonnegut Saw in World War Ii That Made Him Crazy.” Michigan Quarterly Review 49.1 (2010): 106+. Questia. Web.
Gehring, Wes D. “A War by Any Other Name.” USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education) 2009: 71. Questia. Web.
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov is considered to be one of the brightest representatives of Russian literature, known for his The Master and Margarita. This outstanding satirist made wonderful attempts to represent post-revolutionary Russia, and The Master and Margarita is not the only work that amazes due to its analysis of good and evil, courage and cowardice. Lots of short stories and sketches also prove how gifted Bulgakov was. He was afraid to combine realism with fantasy and satire with modern progressive society.
Bulgakov’s satire was rather vitriolic and touched both ideological and practical ridicules concerning Stalin’s totalitarism. With the help of satire, Bulgakov could underline all that greed, arrogance, and meanness of Stalin’s regime that led to total destruction of the soviet.
In his early works, Bulgakov “directs his destructive satire at rather easy targets – the housing crisis and the bureaucracy, respectively.” (Haber, 205) With time, Bulgakov’s satire turned out to be more and more dramatic, pointing out the shortages of technology and society development.
“The first of the various levels on which the novel’s satire functions is that of universal satire, the mockery of perennial human failings as they manifest themselves in the Moscow of the 1920s and 1930s.” (Weeks et al., 221) Without any doubts, Bulgakov presented the Stalin’s regime taking into consideration an appropriate tone and manner.
He did not want to attract too much attention to his satire of Stalinist Russia only. He also pondered the ideas of good and evil in each personality and connected each character condition to the condition of the society in general.
To my mind, The Fatal Eggs is one of the most relevant works, which concentrate on such theme as power in ignorant hands and its consequences. In this work, the author underlines what happened before Stalin came to power and what changed took place when Stalin led the nation and dictated its own rules. However, Bulgakov concentrated on the problems, which were inherent to any human, who lived in that world, and those problems played an important role in the story as well as they influenced political or any other sphere in this life.
“As time went on, things went from bad to worse. After Vlas died, the windows of the Institute froze over altogether, and the inner surface of the glass became encrusted with patterned ice.” (Bulgakov, 55) Of course, it is possible to comprehend these words literally, however, it is better to look at this situation more globally.
When a person dies, some changes happen indeed, and the life of the dead is frozen and stopped, but not the lives of other still alive people. To my mind, satire in this case is all about human weakness and inability to control the situation after someone’s disappearance. Society under Stalin’s regime has its pros and cons, and Bulgakov specified that whatever problems people had, they did not have enough powers to solve all of them independently without a proper leader.
“The professor read no newspapers and never went to the theater. His wife had run away from him in 1913 with a tenor from the Zimin Opera, leaving him the following note: ‘Your frogs make me shudder with intolerable loathing.” (Bulgakov, 53) To my mind, the idea of family is also crucially important in The Fatal Eggs.
The absence of family is something that influences person’s own world and creates certain difficulties. Bulgakov used satire and admitted that a frog cannot replace a wife, but, unfortunately, the main character did not comprehend this simple truth and chose frog instead of family.
These two references present a clear picture that some personal changes could influence both human life and his/her contribution to the whole world.
Works Cited
Bulgakov, Mikhail. “The Fatal Eggs.” In Fatal Eggs and Other Soviet Satire by Ginsburg, Mirra. GROVE/ATLANTIC. 1991.
Haber, Edythe, C. Mikhail Bulgakov: The Early Years. Harvard University Press, 1998.
Weeks, Laura, D. and American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages. The Master & Margarita: A Critical Companion. Northwestern University Press, 1996.
Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Breakfast of Champions, serves as a demonstration of satire. It is a story of events leading to an encounter between Dwayne Hoover and Kilgore Trout. It vividly describes this meeting, the surroundings, their views on different issues and the events following it. Kurt Vonnegut has used satire as a means to show how individuals participate actively in America’s conflict. He combines humor, blunt expressions and ridicule to portray how people take part in causing America’s conflict. He uses this book as a mirror to reflect the problems that happen in the world today and explain how they are caused.
Kurt Vonnegut displays how American people were trying their best to imitate the life of people in fictional books. He further demonstrates how the Pyramid truck drivers’ job required the construction of roads and thus caused pollution. These would lead to destruction of the environment and consequently to the death of humanity. This means that people destroy themselves when they destroy the planet. The author shows that the novel’s narrator is unable to control the machines. He struggles to light the dome light, yet this is his created world. This demonstrates how people struggle to invent technique to ease their lives yet they are unable to operate them, and it ends up in creating problems for them. From the novel, “There was nothing sacred about me or about any human being that we are all machines, doomed to collide and collide and collide.” (Vonnegut 171).
He further states how the world conquerors used guns to destroy the wiring of a difficult machine from far away. Pollution and destruction of the earth are portrayed as having been caused by the manufacturing processes of large lousy machines. The stream that passes through the Sacred Miracle Cave produces bubbles that smell like athlete’s foot as portrayed by the author. This is linked to being the cause of the disease in Bermuda. The territory of West Virginia is also shown as the one that was destroyed by machinery and explosive materials which the people used for mining coal. It was now collapsing into the holes that had been dug. This demolition is explained as having occurred with government authorization, which gets its power from people. This shows that everyone is to be blamed for the destruction and the existing conflict in America and the world at large.
People were relying too much on ideas. When Trout notices how much his idea had frenzied Hoover, he proclaims: “Ideas or the lack of them can cause a disease” (Vonnegut 11). This meant that the idea of developing machinery leads to their destruction. Ideas leak throughout the society like an ailment. This is shown when Trout tells the Pyramid truck driver that mirrors are referred to as leaks in Bermuda. The driver relays this to his wife who in turn tells her allies. This meant that an idea whether bad or good spread throughout a society making every member a participant in any conflict that may arise from the idea. Trout finds it funny to pretend that mirrors were like holes between two worlds, thus he referred to them as leaks.
People preferred remaining in problems and hardships rather than fleeing. This is because they are afraid that things may be harder away from their current problems. That people become adapted to their environment just ”as an animal would” (Vonnegut 150). He compares this to Trout’s Bill who was afraid of everything outside the window. Bill has been in a cage his whole life and when he is freed he does not know what to do and even misses the cage. This makes individuals to be active participants in the conflict of American culture. They are afraid of solving problems existing in the culture and they adapt and view these problems as a normal way of life instead.
Ownership of almost all land divided between a few majorities, such as Dwayne Hoover, demonstrates how selfish people were causing problems to the others, like freed black slaves, who did not have any piece of land. Trout’s story demonstrates these issues. All the plots in Hawaiian Islands belong to approximately forty people. These land owners do not welcome trespassers to their land. This arouses the need of the people living there to find an alternative way in order not to trespass. This made them dangle from strings of the helium. This is an extreme exaggeration. It is used by Kurt Vonnegut to fill the story with humor as well as show how individuals participate in American conflict. Nelson Rockefeller, the Governor of New York, has also been used to show how the ownership rules made by individuals led to the conflict among the same individuals.
Rockefeller owned large parts of land reach with the minerals and the petroleum. However, there was a rule that one only owned what was on the land but not what was underneath it or buried deep in the bowels of the earth. An old miner tells Trout that it was wrong for the one to destroy what was on the land in order to get what was hidden underneath it. Those who owned big parts of land did not find it was worth sharing its reaches with those who did not have anything. Vietnam is described as a communist state while America was shown “dropping things from airplanes” (Vonnegut 74) to bring communism to a halt. There was a factory where the brother to the truck driver worked that manufactured chemicals to destroy the plants and greenery in the country. This means that he and all the other workers were participating in destruction of the planet. Therefore, people are active participants in the world problems.
The urge of people to progress led to many having become too much involved in trade and developing new technologies. This, therefore, resulted in the use of advertisements and the evolving of machines that could perform various tasks at a greater speed than the humans could do. This is shown when the narrator goes after Kilgore Trout, who came to a halt to read a motto; “Progress is our most important product” (Vonnegut 74). Such advertisements are shown “like lullabies to Dwayne” (Vonnegut 106-108). This proves that Dwayne was more concerned with marketing goods for buying and selling of those things than caring about the environment. The author explains how people sold most of their goods some due to those promising advertisements.
Though the people lost all the goods, more children were still being born. This led to overpopulation, the next global issue, as explained by Kurt Vonnegut. They also paid too much attention to the people’s race. For instance, Dwayne Hoover’s step parents had originally been called Hoobler, but they later changed it after realizing that it was a “nigger name” (Vonnegut 107). Black people are compared to animals on the example of the characters from the novel. However, the author opposes this by displaying all the people, regardless of race, as machines. He explains that all of us have some unwavering light (Vonnegut 175) that differentiates us from machines. All individuals are meat machines (Vonnegut 175) with something sacred at the core, while the others are made from metal or plastic. Despite this similarity, all the individuals contribute to the destruction of the world.
Kurt Vonnegut satirizes many aspects of American society like land ownership, technology, overpopulation, pollution and diseases, among others. He compares these aspects with the others to illustrate his arguments. Humor and blunt language are also used to show the relationship between the individuals and the state of the planet. He displays a reflection of the world, where every individual has actively contributed to the existence of conflict in the American culture and the state of the environment.
Works Cited
Vonnegut, Kurt. Breakfast of Champions. Maleny: Rosetta Books, 2010. Print.
It is imperative to note that “A Modest Proposal” is one of the most well-known satirical works by Jonathan Swift. The author provides a suggestion that would help to improve the economy of the country. The idea that poor children can be sold for food is quite shocking and could not be taken seriously. However, Swift wanted it to sound comprehensive and used numerous approaches to keep the attention of readers. It would be beneficial to analyze utilized writing techniques to get a better understanding of how he tries to convince the audience.
Discussion
The essay starts with a serious tone, and the author discusses critical issues that families had to deal with at that time, and one could think that it is an actual proposal. The first surprise is the solution to the problem that is listed. One could believe that the author would switch the style immediately once it has been revealed. However, he tries to sound humorless and does not change the style. The fact that he provides numbers and calculations is also intriguing and increases the comedic value of the work. He may mock some of the proposals that were made and absurdity of given solutions. Moreover, it is known that he published it anonymously to ensure that the reader is not aware of what to expect from this proposal.
Another surprise is that the author has switched from one tone to another before the end of this piece. He addresses politicians directly by pointing out that it is their fault that such issues are present. He lists problems such as unfair treatment by landlords, incredibly high prices for rent. Also, he states that they are not protected from the outside environment and have nowhere to go. Furthermore, I have realized that Swift provides real solutions to the problem in this paragraph. He believes that the government should develop a broad range of policies that would improve the living conditions of these people. Also, he suggests that particular shelters should be available, so they do not have to sleep on the streets (Swift, 1729).
The consumption of children can be viewed as a metaphor for oppression, and Swift pointed out that it was happening (Sayre, 2011). He changes the tone yet again in the final paragraph where he tries to appear completely innocent and states that he has no personal interests. It is necessary to note that such a surprise ending was not expected, and one could think that Swift is leading to a particular twist. However, he does not change the initial statement and achieves comedy through being serious about something that may not be regarded as reasonable. He criticizes approaches utilized by politicians and suggests that they are not interested in resolving this problem.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is possible to state that the author has managed to ensure that the readers accept the surprise ending. It was not what I expected because I thought that Swift would continue to pressure politicians and would reveal that the idea to eat children was a joke in the end. However, he changes the tone masterfully and ends the piece with memorable lines. Overall, it is possible to interpret this essay in several ways, and it may be necessary to read it several times to identify clues hidden by the author.
References
Sayre, H. M. (2011). The humanities: Culture, continuity, and change (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education.
Jonathan Swift is the critic of the contemporary social and political order and his “Gulliver’s Travels” appeared to be a contentious work when it was first published in the 18th century (Smith, p.22). Even without the passages, which were considered to contain ‘political hazard’, the book is full of bitter satire; the author, using parallels, describes the most unfavorable and nasty sides of the European society by developing the imaginary settings of the novels. Parts 3 and 4 of “Gulliver’s Travels”, “A Voyage to Laputa” and “A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms” are an in-depth exploration of the flaws of governance and vices identified in the 18th century English society, presented mainly by means of satire (Lock, 980, p. 38). The present paper argues that in Part 3, the author displays satire through the characters of Laputa’s desperate rulers and Lagado’s gifted scientists, who waste their time for useless experiments, and senile, envious immortals, whereas in Part 4, satire can be found in the radical change of the roles of humans and animals and the inference that the ideal society, embodied by the Houyhnhnms is also corrupt as their morality lacks the values of mercy and compassion.
In “Gulliver’s Travels”, Laputans are described as awkward and egoistic scientists, who seem so concentrated on their abstractive theories, concepts, and ideas that need outside help to distract. Nobler citizens are accompanied by servants who are in charge of reminding their bosses that it is necessary to continue the conversation: “With these bladders, they now and then flapped the mouths and ears of those who stood near them, of which practice I could not then conceive the meaning. It seems that the minds of these people are so taken up with intense speculations, that they neither can speak, not attend to the discourses of others […] ” (Swift, Part 3, Ch.2, Par.1). It is hard to imagine such a miserable ruling class, as the ostensibly worthiest of the Laputans are literally blind and deaf and their mental state does not allow them to think about and discuss political issues.
The king is even more “pensive”, as it is noted in the book that the main character has to wait for the whole day until the state’s leader is able to perceive the objective reality. From the perspective of common sense, the head of the state who spends most of the day in the state of “coma” and has to be hit by his servants (inferiors) in order to sober up looks not merely ineffective, but also ridiculous. Moreover, it needs to be noted that the ruler is not allowed to leave the floating island, located above the other territories (Swift, Part 3, Ch.3, par. 4), so he has never seen his empire and has a very superficial knowledge of the social and political dynamics in the lower regions. As a result, his rule is characterized by absurd and pointless bureaucracy, as the petitions, laws, and official papers are handed from the higher official to the lower until the last servant sends the orders down by means of a rope (Swift, Part 3, Ch.2, par.5). Surprisingly, the Laputans with their inherent mathematical apparatus and strong logic, do not bother themselves to optimize the processes of governance and decision-making (Knowles, p. 89).
Furthermore, the territory of Lagado seems devastated and turned into the ruin by the unwise rule of Munodi and ridiculous experiments of local scientists: “The only inconvenience is, that none of these projects are yet brought to perfection; and in the meantime, the whole country lies miserably waste, the houses in ruins, and the people without food or clothes. By all which, instead of being discouraged, they are fifty times more violently bent upon prosecuting their schemes, driven equally on by hope and despair […]” (Swift, Part 3, Ch.4, par. 12). Further, it becomes clear, that science is already the end in itself in Lagado, as one of the members of the local academia has dedicated years to the attempts to turn excrements into food, the other is trying hard to turn ice into gunpowder.
The academic architects are working on the technology of building houses from the roof down, whereas the blind painter is teaching his blind students to mix colors, differentiating them by smell (Swift, Part 3, Ch.5, par. 7). The Linguist is purifying the language so that only nouns are left and political scientists and government officials are disputing the issue of imposing taxes on women on the basis of their beauty (Swift, Part 3, Ch.6, par. 4). It is obvious that the top circles of the society which have political and legal power, are simply wasting time, as they are striving for goals that are not attainable without supplementary technologies, which require a higher organization of the academia’s functioning as opposed to the existing chaos (Knowles, p.94). At the same time, the commons, shown as the sanest people of the state, neglected and marginalized, are dying of starvation. As one can assume, the depictions of Laputa’s and Lagado’s irrational state leadership and stagnating science can be viewed as powerful satirical messages.
Satire is also evident in the portrayal of Luggnagg’s immortals. Although they to a certain degree represent the protagonist’s ideal and the realization of humanity’s cherished dream about eternal life, in flesh, these people appear to be extremely far from the abstractive ideal. As Hammond notes, the reference to the immortals can be viewed as an allusion to myths about divinities whose power and beauty never disappear and who wisely rule and coach humans (Hammond, p. 172). However, instead of meeting the deities, the embodiment of virtue and constructive force, Gulliver encounters a totally different cohort of people, who view their immortality as doom and behave in accordance with this conviction: ” They were not only opinionative, peevish, covetous, morose, vain, talkative, but incapable of friendship, and dead to all natural affection, which never descended below their grandchildren. Envy and impotent desires are their prevailing passions. But those objects against which their envy seems principally directed, are the vices of the younger sort and the deaths of the old” (Swift, Part 3, Ch.10, par.20). Therefore, these ostensibly lucky people, who have no fear for death, not merely obtain no obvious benefits from their eternal life, but also lose the positive sides and aspects of regular human life, such as love, marriage and family life, fulfillment with professional or career success and, finally, the wisdom of old age. Therefore, the most sacred archetype of human collective consciousness, eternal life, is satirized in the literary work and positioned as physical, psychological, and intellectual degradation (Knowles, p.144).
In Part 4, Swift mocks human society, characterized by extremely complicated organization and system of norms, values, and beliefs. In the narrative about the country of the Houyhnhnms, the world is turned upside down by the author’s creative imagination and humans, the Yahoos, are depicted as inferior creatures, or beasts, whereas horses, the animals, are the embodiment of prudence, level-headedness, and commitment to moral principles. The Houyhnhnms are simple, close to nature, and have a unique civilization. Their language lacks words that denote conflict, war, or cruelty, and the intelligent horses practice a non-violent attitude towards the living creatures around them (Swift, Part 4, Ch.3, par. 7). The Houyhnhnms are also hospitable and warmly welcome Gulliver by offering their guest several types of food so that the man can select what he feels like eating and by teaching him their language and culture with great enthusiasm. As the protagonist joins the community, he finds out that it is governed by the assembly of the elders, and each member of the group prioritizes collective well-being over personal.
These values and skills of healthy and sound interactions with the environment are nurtured in the younger individuals since their early years. At the same time, human beings, the Yahoos, are wild and unruly: “Several of this cursed brood, getting hold of the branches behind, leaped up into the tree, whence they began to discharge their excrements on my head; however, I escaped pretty well by sticking close to the stem of the tree but was almost stifled with the filth, which fell about me on every side” (Part 4, Ch.1, par.5). Therefore, the whole human civilization with its inherent tendency to never-ending wars is symbolically represented by the aggressive Yahoos and thus satirized; moreover, the criticism becomes even harsher when considering the idea that animals are hierarchically higher and better-organized creatures as compared to humans (Rawson, p. 302). In fact, humans seem primitive and deformed beings in the background the pure-minded, righteous, and principled Houyhnhnms who enjoy living in harmony with the natural environment, as opposed to humans who deliberately imprison themselves in stone and wooden boxes. The intelligent horses do not understand the purpose of war and believe that any disagreement can be resolved by more peaceful means, i.e. through diplomacy, communication, and negotiation (Rawson, p.304).
At the same time, the Houyhnhnms, the perfect society which Gulliver admires, are not flawless in their moral superiority. In fact, the intelligent horses justify their intention to extinguish the Yahoos by sterilizing the beasts, using the argument of their highly-developed reason and morality (Swift, Part 4, Ch. 9, par. 9). Therefore, the Houyhnhnms give themselves the power to make decisions concerning the lives of the other populations on the basis of self-perceived moral excellence (Tippett, p. 158). However, from the perspective of formal logic, both the Yahoos and the Houyhnhnms were brought into this world by Nature, so neither of the groups has the right to exterminate the other. Another feature of the Houyhnhnms society which challenges the illusion of faultlessness is the problem of the Houyhnhnms’ indistinct personalities since this is an only society where individuals do not have names (Swift, Part 4, Ch.4, par. 8).
It is possible to argue that horses, regardless of their human intelligence, do not need names, since they can distinguish each other by using more perfect sense perception, but the fact itself that such high creatures who even develop different sciences have no identities seems strange and appalling. In this sense, the community of Houyhnhnms can be viewed as a single organism rather than a diverse group of individuals, as they are fully subordinated to the collective consciousness (Tippett, p.167). Therefore, human society, where individualities with distinct identities and personality traits manage to coexist, appears to be an advanced form of organization. As one can assume, even the rational Houyhnhnms are used in the literary work as an allegory, through which Swift mocks the Utopian paradigms of supreme societies, which, as the author suggests, are likely to end up in the state of the mass or conflux with the civilization, similarly to the Houyhnhnms.
To sum up, both explicit and implicit satire is used in “Gulliver’s Travels”. Whereas Part 3 is fully composed in a satirical tone and clearly reveals the bizarre methods of governance and social policymaking, Part 4 shows hyper contextual satirical messages about the meaninglessness of urbanization and lack of plausibility in the popular Utopian ideas of a perfect society. However, in both narratives, satire is grounded deeply in morality, so the imaginary societies serve as grotesque representations of human flaws, weaknesses, and limitations.
Works cited
Hammond, B. Gulliver’s Travels. Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1988.
Knowles, R. Gulliver’s Travels: The Politics of Satire. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996.
Lock, F. The Politics of Gulliver’s Travels. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.
Rawson, C. God, Gulliver and Genocide: Barbarism and the European Imagination. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Smith, F. The Genres of Gulliver’s Travels. Newark, Delaware: University of Delaware Press, 1990.
Francois Voltaire’s narration is a rendition of comical theatrics that mocks human integrity. Ever heard of the Pope’s daughter? What about a philosopher who, despite his lofty thoughts, could not help contracting syphilis from a lowly prostitute? These things are very probable…but wait, only among ‘civilized’ men! In this story, Voltaire wanted his audience to question the church’s monopoly over moral issues in the face of her hypocrisy, critique the system of giving objects like jewels monetary value (from the economic concepts of scarcity, demand, and price), assess the usefulness of intellectual institutions to society and finally, to examine the human weakness to choose beauty over character.
Analysis
In Candide, human civilization is turned on its head, especially on matters about sexual morality, leadership, and intellectual institutions. In the novel, the baron has an illegitimate son, conceived in his extra-marital sexual escapades. The Pope has a daughter, fathered in circumstances that claim celibacy of a big joke. And the learned class, in this case, represented by the philosopher Pangloss, could not keep their minds off a whore’s thighs.
The protagonist, Candide, the German baron’s bastard son, is banished from home for kissing Cunegonde, the baron’s daughter. He wonders from continent to continent, and everywhere he goes he is confronted with the social and moral rot among men. However, when he and his band of fugitives get to a country called Eldorado, they are amazed to see heaps of jewels scattered along the streets. Satire is achieved by criticizing man’s craze and obsession for material things, which by themselves do not have any value at all. In this incident, Voltaire shows that sometimes men crave things which, if everybody else were to ignore them, they won’t have any value. In Eldorado, for instance, nobody cares for the jewel, and as a result, it litters in abundance along the streets. But because Candide and his men have been conditioned to value it, they see a goldmine, literally. So, what will happen if everybody adopted a very low opinion of banknotes? They will lose their value; they are paper, after all!
However, Voltaire’s satire goes beyond mocking man’s assignation of value to inanimate objects. He also points out that they go to war, enslave and kill for these very useless objects. In contemporary times, it happens when nations fight over natural resources. For instance, there were the ‘blood diamonds’ from Angola, where thousands of people were killed for the ‘precious stone.’
The learned class in society is meant to guide the rest of humanity in the right direction. However, in Candide, the learned men contract a venereal disease and then philosophize to blame it on Columbus. Pangloss says that “It was a thing unavoidable, a necessary ingredient in the best of worlds; for if Columbus had not in an island of America caught this disease…” (Voltaire 9). Very succinctly, Voltaire captures the sorry state of a human society that claims to be led by intellectuals. Philosophy, as a subject that engages the mind’s most intelligent faculties, shares some elements of the creativity involved in the fine arts such as sculpting but is employed in promoting moral decadence. In Greek art, for example, the talent of artistic expression, as opposed to the argument in philosophy, is used to create objects that appeal to baser instincts, the depiction of nude human figures.
Greek art portrayed sexual scenes, which they usually painted on ceramics. Like the societies depicted in Candide, they lacked the concept of sexual immorality or pornography, and art reflected scenes from their daily life (Wrinkler 297). Even in places of worship, curved phallic images were used as charms. The religious and superstitious significance attached to the male phallic organ explains the prominence of art, which displayed sexual activity.
In literature, sexual immorality was portrayed as acceptable, since it was presented explicitly in letters (Wrinkler et al 296). This shows that it had been entrenched in the culture, similar to the trends seen in Candide, through the establishment of institutions that promoted sexual activities such as the nunnery.
In 1947, Theodor Adorno observed that “the fully enlightened world radiated disaster triumphant.” He lamented that the technology which characterized the era of the 18th-century enlightenment did not work by “the fortunate insight”, but refers to methods, exploitation of others’ work, and capital. What men seek to learn from nature is the enlightenment to “dominate it and other men: it has extinguished any trace of its self-consciousness” (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1997, 4). The disasters of the 20th century such as WW1 and WW2 reflect what Voltaire portrays in Candide.
This satirical attack by Voltaire mocks the modern civilized world which is guided by rational thinking. The ironic twist of the story in mocking man’s rationality is in the philosopher’s use of reason to justify his undoing. At the end of the story, everybody is happy and committed to working instead of engaging in conflicting philosophical speculations. This is a direct attack on what is regarded as a higher realm of thinking. But then again, when you realize that, unlike physics, biology, or mathematics philosophy does not lead to any tangible profitability, Voltaire’s view makes a lot of sense. What gain is there in a subject whose main concern is thinking about thinking, whatever that means, and speculating about things for which there is no empirical evidence?
The illusion that religious leaders are inherently moral is shattered by Voltaire’s portrayal of the character of the Pope. According to church doctrine, they are supposed to be celibate, in fact impotent, strictly speaking. However, the Pope has a daughter, probably a product of one of his off-the-altar flings with a nun, a sister, or something in a skirt for that matter. But then, again, this is not a surprise, especially if one has read the New York Times or Washington Post on April 12 this year, both of which reported about the Vatican’s antics to safe face after the sex scandal that hit the Catholic Church recently, courtesy of her horny priests. It will never get any crazier.
On the issue of character, Candide is mesmerized by Cunegonde’s beauty, which blinds him not to see into her selfish character. This is portrayed when he follows her to Buenos Aires, where she rejects him to marry the governor. And when she eventually ages and her beauty fades, he is not as fervent as before to marry her. The emphasis on appearance rather than character is really common today, where people choose their partners depending on how handsome or beautiful they are. When John Keats said in his Ode to a Grecian Urn that Beauty is Truth, and it is all that you need to know, he was not entirely off the point.
Conclusion
The last blow that Voltaire dealt modern civilization is the fact that Candide and his bored companions found happiness and fulfillment in the simplest form of life that the human race initially evolved from simple farming. The return to what is widely thought as the savage stage of human civilization is a veiled mockery of the technological and intellectual enlightenment that began in the early 18th century. It seems then that the only way a man could find the right path towards a better civilization is by restraining from engaging in useless philosophical arguments, which, after all, is the trade of people to whom everything else makes little sense.
Works Cited
Adorno, Theodor, Horkheimer, Morris. Dialectic of Enlightenment Volume 15. New York: Verso, 1997.
Voltaire Francois. Candide. New York: Kessinger Publishing, 2004.
Wrinkler, John J., Williams, Gordon W. Later Greek Literature. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Francisco de Quevedo was among the most famous poet and writers in Spain during the Golden Age. He was born in Madrid where his family formed the government. He lost his parents at an early age .He joined Alcala University where he studied humanities as well as theology in Valladolid. Quevedo learned many modern languages including Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. At the age of 25 years, he published his first poem. El Buscon novel is among the most famous works of Quevedo.
The novel was written in 1604 and published later in 1626.The book was however published out of Quevedos knowledge. El Buscon is a picaresque novel. These are fiction novels, which use satire in representation of ideas. In this case, the author is usually humorous through exaggeration of ideas. In these novels, characters use their wit so that they can survive in the society, which is usually corrupt.
This style of writing novels is widely used by writers in the modern literature. The style is very important because it makes literature works interesting. Satire is a stylistic device in which the author uses irony or exaggerations in expressing ideas. Satire has played a major role in writing this novel. The paper shows how satire is used in the novel and how it helps in the development of the plot of the story.
Discussion
The novel El Buston revolves around the adventures of Don Pablos who is described as a buscon. This individual uses unfair means like cheating and stealing in order to obtain money or properties. Two things that Pablos wanted to achieve in life were that he wanted to grow as a person as well as learning good morals but he never achieved any.
Even though the novel satirizes Spanish life, it acted as a literary exercise for Quevedo who represented the different characteristics of these people but with exaggerations, which produced a comic effect. The novel profound the notion that children from honorable parents should be honored and never those whose parents are not .The author of the novel satirizes the Spanish society.
He also attacks the main character in the story Pablos, a character who always struggles to achieve a higher position. Quevedo is against the idea of moving from one class to another because to him, it is a way of creating disorder in the society. Quivedo punished Pablos because of his attempts to be better placed. Pablos has believed that all human beings were equal.
The book is very important because it portrays many aspects of the society. Through the novel, we learn more about a thief. The book is divided into three main parts. Several themes are clearly portrayed in the novel, for example, the theme of family as well as legal and lawless cruelty. As the story begins, Pablos is a child whereas his father Clemente Pablos is a thief and a barber. Aldonza, Pablos’ mother is portrayed as a witch and a prostitute.
We learn through Pablos that his mother was a new Christian convert. Pablos had a brother who had been flogged to death in prison, as he was a thief. The characters in the story are satirized. For example, being a barber, we do not expect Pablos’ father to be a thief. He has a right way of earning his living. The character of the mother is also satirized because as a new Christian convert, she should not engage in prostitution.
Witchcraft is too not advocated for in the Christian life. Pablos was interested in studies and his parents allowed him to enroll in a school. Don Diego Coronel was Pablos’ best friend at school. He is faced with many challenges at school after which he decides to stop schooling.
He decides not to go back home again. Don Diego remains to be his best friend and he too leaves school. Don Alanso, the father of Diego decides to hand over the two boys as wards to Dominle Cabra in Segovia. Pablos and Diego suffer a lot in the hands of Cabra especially lack of enough food. The death of one boy due to starvation made Alanso to shift the boys from that school to Alcala to continue with their studies.
As Alanso, Diego and Pablos travelled to Alcala, they came across a group of students who mocked Pablos. After the three arrived at Alacala, Pablos was separated from Don Diego and beaten up by some University students because he was not a person enough. Pablos shared his room with four other students who also beat him up during the night. Not being a person is not enough for one to be beaten up. It is ironical because he does not defend himself.
His reaction is funny because he kills pigs, which he does not own. He holds a party in which he tricks his property owner into giving two chickens in exchange. This is satirical because the value of a pig can never be equivalent to that of a chicken. Among the bad habits included stealing sweets from a merchant in the locality as well as swords. His friends laugh at him, because of the things that he does.
The author exaggerates his characters because a sweet is a minor thing to be stolen from a merchant. Pablos should have stolen things of greater value. During their stay in Alcala, Pablos got a letter, which informed him of the death of his father who had been hanged. The letter also indicated that his mother was in jail. Don Diego also received a letter from his father who warned him against his friendship with the Pablos.
The friendship between Pablos and Don Diego ends. Pablos arranges to meet with one of his relatives who would arrange for Pablos inheritance of his fathers wealth who was already dead. The way in which the above problems occur to Pablos is satirical. His father is hanged, his mother is in jail and his best friend leaves him. It is not possible that all of these took place at the same time.
As he travelled to Segovia to claim his properties, he came across an insane engineer. They discussed many topics with the engineer. They went to an inn where he met with a teacher who tried to teach him a lesson. It is satirical that the characters that Pablos interacted with were mad. Does it mean that he did not come across mentally fit persons who he could share with what he had? On their arrival to Cercedilla, they played cards where Hermit tricked them and ended up as the winner of all the games that they played.
On arrival to Segovia, he met with Alanso Ramplomn his uncle. People celebrate in his uncle’s house at a great dinner where they ate and drunk. Pablos is however not involved in the party. As people enjoy, he moves around the compound. He returns to the house and drives away all the people present in the party except his uncle who was supposed to discuss the issue of inheritance.
It is funny that Pablos decided to drive his uncles visitors away and they did nothing wrong to him and his uncle does not seem to question him. The man who claims to be a person teaches Pablos of the expected behavior in court. He taught him lying techniques as well as some of the ways in which he could take advantage of other people in some situations.
The main aim of the alleged hidalgo was to pass knowledge to Pablos on the way in which he could use unfair means in obtaining other peoples properties or even take advantage of other people in particular situations. Pablos is displayed as a character whose character traits are not acceptable in the society. Being corrupt is a vice discouraged by all societies.
Pablos and the alleged person visited Don Toribio in his house. Don Torobio is another man who claims to be a man. In this house, Pablos met with deceitful and unreliable people like thieves and gangsters. Pablos is dressed in tattered clothes, which makes his appearance funny bearing in mind that he is one person who intends to be a gentleman.
Pablos was arrested and taken to the prison together with the friends he met at Toribios house. At the jail, Pablos befriended a jailer through whom he is not flogged. When Pablos told the jailer that he is related to his wife, he accepted and helped him. Does it mean that he is not aware of his wife’s relatives? “Pablos changed his name to Ramilo de Guzman and went to an inn where he pretended to be a rich man with the aim of winning Berenguela de Rebolledo, a daughter of the innkeeper.”
He succeeded in his lies and Berenguela allowed him to visit her during the night. She told him climb at the top of the roof so that he can enter her room without other people’s awareness. The roof collapsed as he tried to enter the room after which the innkeepers wake up, beat him up and finally throw him to jail again. It is very difficult to access a room through the roof.
As he was in jail, he suffered a lot as he was beaten up until two men one from Portugal and the other one from Catalonia saved him. Again, he changes his name to Don Felipe Tristan. Villa is the residence of the two rich women. One of the women has three married nieces and she wants Pablos to marry one of them.
Pablos falls in love with Dona Ana the most beautiful girl of the three. During Pablos’ picnic with Dona Ana, they came across Don Diego who recognizes Pablos at the first sight. Pablos does not however recognize him. Pablos stays behind until he changes to his new begging career.
In his begging career, Pablos met with Valcazar a beggar who introduced him to the world of begging. He used the money he obtained from begging to buy new clothes. In addition, he bought a hat and a sword. He then migrated to Toledo where people did not know him.
In Toledo, he joined comedic actors where he worked as a scriptwriter. He was also a poet in Toledo. At this place, his new name was Alanso el Cruel. Unfortunately, the arrest of the group leader by the police led to the disintegration of the group. Pablos leaves the acting career and falls in love with a nun. Finally, Pablos travels to Seville and joins a group of gangsters.
The gangsters went out, drunk and ate together so that they lost control over their behavior. Pablos and the other thieves were fortunate as they managed to escape. It is satirical that Pablos and the other gangsters managed to escape from the police bearing in mind that they were intoxicated and therefore they did not have control on themselves. After this, they travelled to Indies to see if there will be any positive change in their lives. We however learn through Pablos that life was even harder for him in America.
Conclusion
Satire is a very useful stylistic device. The use of satire makes works interesting such that individual feel like they should continue reading. As people read satirize works, they laugh and all their attention is drawn into what they are reading. For example, the reader of this novel will be interested to know the reason behind Pablos’ change of names. In many cases, people who change their names so that they cannot be recognized usually have bad motives.
The stages through which Pablos passes are satirized. He moves from being a beggar, scriptwriter and a poet, falls in love with a nun and finally joins a group of gangsters. In each stage, he changed his names. The novel is full of characters that are not morally upright. We have weared characters in the novel like witches and thieves who are not acceptable in many societies. Satire is used in development of the plot of the story.
Bibliography
Barnstone, W. (1997). Six Masters of the Spanish Sonnet: Francisco de Quevedo, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Antonio Machado, Federico Garcia Lorca, Jorge Luis Borges, Miguel Hernandez. New York, NY: SIU Press.
Cruz, A. (1999). Discourses of poverty: social reform and the picaresque novel in early modern Spain. New York, NY: University of Toronto Press.
Dunn, P. (1993). Spanish picaresque fiction: a new literary history. London: Cornell University Press.
Quevedo, F. (1610). El Buscon, Francisco de Quevedo Villegas (1580–1645), Filología, 9, pp. 163–200.
“Pangloss was professor of metaphysico-theologico-cosmolo-niology. He proved admirably that there is no effect without a cause” (Voltaire 8).
The use of satire is the key point of Voltaire’s success in his work. One of the first examples of satire as the possibility to introduce some philosophical ideas was the description of the professor’s activities. The point is that the field of his work is hard to pronounce quickly as well as to understand at the very beginning. And the idea that is offered by the professor is too simple still too educative to consider. In other words, people should better pay more attention to the essence of the idea, its core, and basis instead of thinking about the ways of how to make everything more complicated then it is now.
“Come, sir, seat yourself; not only will we pay your reckoning, but we will never suffer a man as you to want money; men are only born to assist one another” (Voltaire 10).
Such combination of ideas can make the reader smile or even being confused. The combination of tragic and comic theme is perfectly observed in these lines. The author describes the real challenges men face in ordinary life: on the one hand, they are usually forced to earn money and create appropriate conditions for living; and on the other hand, men do not have too many rights to control their money as well as be connected to the financial affairs which may be perfectly controlled by women.
America
“A hundred times I was upon the point of killing myself; but still I loved life. This ridiculous foible is perhaps one of our most fatal characteristics” (Voltaire 32).
What the author wants to disclose in this chapter is the idea of why so many unfortunate people who think about suicides a lot cannot kill themselves. The satire used in these lines underline the fact that how tragic a human life can be, a person will never agree to make it worsen being aware that no one can help him/her any more. It is an ordinary think to take a number of stupid actions without any reasons, but when the time to do something serious comes, people are too weak to sacrifice themselves in order to make the world better.
“You have seventy-two quarterings, and not a farthing; it is now in your power to be wife to the greatest lord… who have very beautiful moustachios” (Voltaire 34).
In this phrase, several human principles are hidden. First, it is one of the evident questions whether women have to marry because of love or because of money. It seems to be tragic to recognize that the vast majority of people are mercenary; however, it is always possible to find some pleasant aspects of the chosen principles and believe that the ideas of humanism and true feelings may be traced even while a too mercenary choice is made.
Ottoman
“There is no doubt of it: but in this country it is found good, from time to time, to kill one Admiral to encourage the other” (Voltaire 67).
There are a number of actions which may be characterized as both of positive and negative impact on society. The chosen citation serves as a powerful example of how the death of one person that has to be considered as a personal tragedy may become the required stimulus for more people. The question is whether it is necessary to neglect the life of one person in order to improve the conditions which other people will live under. The author criticizes still uses one human death as a means to encourage the others.
“It is a chaos – a confused multitude, where everyone seeks pleasure and scarcely any one finds it, at least it appeared to me” (Voltaire 76).
The peculiar feature of this idea is all about the possibility to find some kind of satisfaction in chaos. It is hard to understand how people may be happy in the chaos they create. There are so many ways to improve human life, and people cannot understand that it is still possible to live in a good and properly organized world and search for their pleasure under the most appropriate conditions. It is time to stop taking unreasonable steps and evaluate the life and human needs to realize a true worth of life.
In his 18th-century work titled “A Modest Proposal,” Jonathan Swift investigates poor Irish people’s boundaries. The piece mocks financial policy-makers’ non-existent empathy for the economically disadvantaged populations’ daily issues and emotional connection to their families. Aside from culture-related themes, one aspect of the assigned reading that deserves further discussion pertains to Swift’s skillful manipulation of facts to make selling poor children as food seem a righteous idea.
Discussion
Just like successful manipulative politicians, Swift carefully selects and presents facts to shift society’s attention from the proposed measure’s ethical inappropriateness to the practical benefits that it can promote. Specifically, implementing his writing talent, Swift connects the legalization of child trade and cannibalism to the opportunity to reduce the incidence of abortions in poor households. Despite being exaggerated for a humorous effect, this example resembles the act of channeling the crowd’s negative attention to another unpleasant phenomenon by vilifying the latter. Politicians can actively instrumentalize it when justifying decisions that gain negative reception.
Similar to much less extreme political speeches that can be encountered today, Swift’s humorous arguments for sacrificing the poor’s offspring are permeated with demonstrative righteousness, double standards, and incomplete logical sequences. For instance, he suggests that treating the poor’s children as a commodity will discourage low-income women from engaging in the heartless act of killing children born outside of marriage or adulterine bastards. At the same time, the fact that these children will still be slaughtered a bit later in life does not deserve Swift’s critical remarks and gets ignored. Such decisions reveal his ability to place accents wisely and stop reviewing the proposal’s implications when necessary. Technically, the rich purchasing low-income children as their livestock should also be condemned for taking human lives away, but Swift’s argumentation carefully avoids any negative labels for the hypothetical consumers, revealing how double standards work.
Conclusion
Overall, the essayist effectively satirizes political leaders’ unchanging persuasion tactics by appealing to the poor’s collective identity. Swift’s writing mocks the act of condemning certain behaviors in one group while ignoring the same actions in a more privileged group, playing with facts, and biased evidence selection practices. From this perspective, the essay has not lost its actuality and still represents a thought-provoking piece to shed light on manipulative rhetorics.
Communication and media are facing the need to say or do something different in a new way. This simplifies the efforts by communication channels to be unique in their presentations so that they can attract large audiences.
New ideas, new topics of research and advanced students have made this area not only innovative but also controversial (Hartley 2011). This research sets the pace for other academic and extensive research on this topic.
Danesi defines media as any productions, for instance, TV programs, radio shows, newspaper columns or advertisements (2009, p. 194). Producers use contemporary media texts to convey meaning to the audience. It is not certain, however, that the audience will receive this message as intended because the text could be misinterpreted or misunderstood.
Contemporary media channels (for example TV) use communicative codes that need decoding (Hartley 2011, p. 3). TV communicators know that their message could not be decoded the same way by all their audiences.
Therefore, research is vital to establish how the message sent can reach the target audience, and what to do to ensure proper decoding takes place. According to Hartley, textual (semiotics) and audience (sociological) analysis should be done to know how to use the media to reach a mass audience.
Introduction
Satire is dramatic, literary, or visual art created to review folly or abuse. Even though it uses humor and wit, satire intends to shade light on the wrong deeds present in both the social and political circles. Parody, on the hand, is a stylist imitation serving to call attention to and ridicule original style (Boler & Turpin 2008, p. 401).
Irony is among the styles used in satire. In this case, a person says one thing but means a different thing. It brings out the shared cultural meanings in satire in order to create the jokes. There are stages where irony could be used, for instance, when issuing statements about news media, parody characters and performances at events.
In this study, I will focus on satire as a tool for fighting political impunity, and the challenges that the satirists face.
The Challenges Satirists Face
Many countries experience political issues in one way or the other. These issues range from bribery and corruption, nepotism, ethnic divisions, misappropriation of public funds, racial discrimination, etc. When a producer creates a comedy show, their intention is always to entertain as well as educate the audiences.
Satirists have also used music to pass across their messages by composing songs that rebuke corruption in the government. Negus states that we corporate machines should not attempt to control creativity in the popular music just to satisfy their greed (McIntyre 2011). Both musicians and satirists should be left to express themselves through their talents. According to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, comedy shows are not news since they do not have partisan agendas, they just entertain their audiences.
The Daily Show is a late night comedy show in the United States and Canada. According to Boler and Turpin (p. 391), since real news shows do not confirm political claims against reality, fake news shows have taken over the role of revealing that many politicians tell lies.
McClennen (2011, p. 13) describes Colbert’s parody as Bill O’Reilley at White house dinner, where he gave a satirical speech as the most aggressive public confrontation of President Bush during his tenure in office. In his speech, Colbert revealed all the scandals in the government thereby exposing what the main stream media had failed to expose. This act made Colbert a legend.
Can a comedy show like The Daily Show be held accountable to journalistic standards and integrity? This is the question that lingers in people’s minds. According to Joe Stewart, comedy shows cannot be held accountable to journalistic standards since they engage in theater instead of engaging in critical journalism. He insists that news organizations should not look to comedy for “cues on integrity” (Boler & Turpin 2008, p. 395).
There has been a general public dissatisfaction with the main stream media personnel who concealing political vices in governments. The audience has thus lost trust in the main stream media and has now resorted to support satirists who expose the real issues in governments. Popular comedy hosts have been outstanding and recommended for their courage to say the truth and confront political issues without fear or favour.
An exchange between Stewart and Moyer in 2003 focused on journalism and satire in a contradictory way. Moyers questioned whether, Stewart practiced an old form of satire or the form of journalism. In his response, Stewart states that this issue could be determined by whether Moyers was speaking about news or comedy adding that we are living in the new form of desperation.
With the advents in media, people have been able to display their talents through social sites like YouTube. Satirists all over the world are creating satirical shows using the available digital equipment and posting them on YouTube for people to see.
Because of this, artists now have lucrative deals by leading companies who nurtured their talents and made them stars. Political satirists, like Chris Rock have also posted their work on social sites to increase public awareness on political issues.
Through the mass media like TV, Radio and the Internet, many people have come to know about scandals that they never knew. Many people have also learnt about their political systems through satirical shows. Peterson says that most Americans get to know their politicians through satirical shows (2008, p. 21).
The description of these politicians is so funny that it leaves the memory in people’s heads. There is evidently more political satire in democratic countries than in authoritarian regimes according to Leonard. This is because of the freedom of expression that exists in these democracies.
In reference to my question above, it is true that political satire can help in fighting vices in political systems, but the challenges are overwhelming. According to Freeman (2009), throughout history, the political jester can speak truth to power even though there is always censorship of some sort in this industry. This has made it difficult for the satirists to run their shows without restrictions by the authorities in their countries.
Another challenge that satirists face is the problem in finding and holding an audience since many people dislike like politics. More often, therefore, these shows tend to incorporate other jokes about cultures, personalities or ethnic groups’ social issues into their shows so that they can attract people’s attentions.
The negative attitude that people have towards satirists also hinders their work of fighting political vices through comedy. According to the Lake Victorian caricaturist and essayist Mac Beerbohm, a satirist is a person laying about lustily to hurt or injure those who according to him should be hurt and injured (Freedman 2009, p. 1).
Since no one likes to be ridiculed, political satire has often been labeled as a dangerous and uncomfortable field since the people one makes fun of may decide to sue them or pose a threat to their lives. Many US satirists believe that president Bush deserved to be hurt and injured.
They, therefore, went ahead to scorn and ridicule him on their comedy shows. Zerubavel gives an example of a satirist, who mocks an emperor by telling him that he is either blind, or the emperor is naked” (2006 p. 73). According to Freedman (p. 14), other targets for satire are Bill Clinton (the sex scandal) and George Bush (his leaders).
Different people react to satire different. While some will choose to laugh at the jokes and even appear at the shows, others get angered and cut off offending passages on the newspapers or ban the TV show and imprison or penalize the satirists. In the 1920s, for example, the Soviet Union, imprisoned Philipon and his colleagues and their magazines banned for satirically criticizing the government.
There is another challenge of maintaining the momentum in comedy shows. Satirists have to look for fresh jokes keep their audience entertained. This seems to be the biggest challenge for satirists since the audience is the most powerful person in their work. They thus need to carry out thorough research for them to reach a desired audience and get their attention.
Overcoming the Challenges
Some of the Key Concepts that should be considered in order to overcome these challenges are as follows:
Censorship. Hartley (p. 38) defines censorship as the control of published content by official agencies in order to discipline the populations and render any dangerous thoughts and desires docile. It is thus essential for satirists to analyse their government systems and program their show in a way that they will speak up against the vices, but in a soft way to avoid censorship.
Communication. This is a meaning generating interaction between two systems or organisms by means of mutually recognizing signals (Hartley, p. 49). Satirists design and present their jokes with the intention of passing information. This information could concern corruption in the government, the high cost of living or nepotism in the civil service. Text is anything that represents, expresses or communicates speeches, poems or programs. The text in satirical programs stands for the message that the producer wants to pass to the audience.
Celebrity. The person that speaks at a show will affect the way a message is received. The public reaction to a joke or mockery will significantly depend on whom that person is. Celebrities in this case always have an upper hand to charm the audiences than regular people. The reason behind this is that already they have a fan base hence they just need to tickle them a little for them to burst into laughter. Many people will attend a satirical show hosted by Chris Rock than one hosted by an unknown person.
Audience. Watson & Hill (p. 16) state that an audience is the receptors of messages sent. For a show to be successful, the producer should consider creating a content that will fit the audiences. Gender, academic level, religious background and language, will determine the approach to take in their presentation.
Context. Hartley (p. 61) defines context as the environment where we make a presentation. Political satire is not advisable in a country that is experiencing violence due to political difference since this will fuel violence. In 2008 Republican John McCain and his wife were victims of political satire during a talk show called The View, hosted by five female presenters. The hosts saw that environment as the perfect opportunity for them to mock the presidential aspirant for approving of a message on advertisements that were propaganda campaigns against his opponent, Barrack Obama (Jones 2010, p. 3). This action signifies how democracy may turn around and hurt the same people who defend it through satire. This is evidently the reason behind strict restrictions by authoritarian governments on satirical programs.
Media. It is any means of transmitting information according to Danesi (2009). For comedy shows to reach their target audiences, the producers should choose their media correct. Comic shows have adopted with the changes in media trend well. According to Kellner, mainstream media processes information, events and news as media spectacle (2009). It is this power of the media that has taken these shows to Facebook, twitter, YouTube and MySpace.
These innovations have led to the work of writers like Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises) to be translated into films (Hay 2011, p. 24). Women have also decided to join the field of political satire as writers, cartoonists or performers. Maureen Dowd and Molly Ivins are among the noticeable number of women who have made their names as satirists (Freedman 2009, p. 2).
Conclusion
It is vital for both private and government institutions to support satirists carry out their self-imposed role of being watchdogs. This avenue could also grow to create employment opportunities to the youths.
Reference List
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Freedman, L 2009, The Offensive Art: Political Satire and Its Censorship around the World from Beerbohm to Borat, Greenwood publishing group, London UK.
Hartley, J 2011, Communication, Cultural and Media Studies: The Key Concepts, 4th Ed. Routledge, London, UK.
Hays, P 2011, The critical reception of Hemingway’s The Sun also rises. Camden House, New York, USA.
Jones, J 2010, Entertaining Politics: Satirical Television and political engagement, 2nd ed. Rowland & Littlefield Publishers Inc, Maryland, USA.
Kellner, D 2009, “Media Spectacles and Media Events: Some Critical Reflections”, in N. Couldry et al, Media Events in Global Age, Routledge, London, UK.
McClennen, S 2011, America According to Colbert: Satire as Public Pedagogy, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, USA.
McIntyre, P 2011, “Popular Music: Creativity and Authenticity” in Creativity and Cultural Production: Issues for Media Practice, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.
Peterson, R 2008, Strange Bedfellows: How Late-Night Comedy Turns Democracy into a Joke, NJ, USA.
Watson J & Hill A. 2012, Dictionary of Media and Communication Studies, 8th ed. Bloomsbury Academic, London UK.
Zerubavel E. 2006, Elephant in the Room: Silence and Denial in Everyday Life, Oxford University Press NC, USA