Apt Pupil, Daily Show, Perfect Storm, and How to Make an American Quilt - How Will These Help My Writing?
Apt Pupil
Psychological thriller
Lack of a conclusion
Not enough character development
Plot didn't develop
Daily Show
Appeals to a specific audience
Comedy and satire of the news and current events
Sensationalism
Perfect Storm
Use of imagery
Believable dialogue
Suspenseful situations
Believable reactions
How to Make an American Quilt
Complete characterization
Plots independent of each but make an interdependent story
Believable events and reactions
The four works; Apt Pupil, Daily Show, Perfect Storm, and How to Make an American Quilt are all very respectable in their individual sense. Each work possesses a different style and is different in presentation. The difference in presentation is very important when analyzing a specific work. Television for example can deal with changing current events and issues. The Daily Show is the perfect example. The show thrives off of satire of everyday events and needs changing circumstances to exist. Satire is not restricted to television; it has been utilized in books, magazines, and movies for years. Jonathan Swift is a prime example of a satirist of his times. He wrote novels such as Gulliver’s Travels that criticized his era in a mocking fashion. The main differences between the television and a novel are the interaction. The fact that the dialogue is heard and not just read, seen not just imagined. The spectacle of The Daily Show is not wonderful. The set is very simple but it is functional. The Daily Show is a perfect example of how to make the scenery and set functional and not showy. The Daily Show uses it’s resources to make the best show possible, and it succeeds.
A similar form of media is film. Films are dependent on good scripts, dialogue and acting. Acting is essential, even if the script is beautiful, if the acting is horrible the film suffers and vice-versa. Apt Pupil is a film that lacks in screenplay. The acting was great, the portrayl of the characters believable, but the dialogue and plot was not well developed and therefore the movie lacked a sense of completion. The spectacle was wonderful, there was great use of light, objects, angles but the work was definitely lacking essential parts. The literary lesson to learn from this work, is that a few good points of a work do not make up for the lacking parts. A film, television show, novel, or essay needs to clear and concise and complete.
In his essay, “It’s Just a Movie: A Teaching Essay for Introductory Media Classes”, Greg M. Smith argues that analyzing a film does not ruin, but enhances a movie-viewing experience; he supports his argument with supporting evidence. He addresses the careful planning required for movies. Messages are not meant to be telegrams. Audiences read into movies to understand basic plotlines. Viewers should examine works rather than society’s explanations. Each piece contributes to Smith’s argument, movies are worth scrutinizing.
While the tone may range from playful to angry, satire generally criticizes in order to make a change. Exaggeration, parody, reversal, and incongruity are satirical devices. Author’s use satirical devices to strengthen their central idea.
Satire is form of comedy in which flaws in people or society are chastised in order to prompt change in the objects of criticism. Regardless of how long ago comedy itself may have existed, the concept of satire was introduced by the Roman satirists, Juvenal and Horace. The tones conveyed in their writing characterize the main modes of satire, being Horatian and Juvenalian, and are still used in satire today. Presently, two popular forms of comedy that employ satirical elements include parody news sources and comedic performances. Although satirical writing has evolved throughout history, many aspects of satire are still apparent in both the articles of parody news sources, like The Onion, and the performances of professional comedians, like
Satire is a technique used in literature to criticize the faults of society. An excellent examle of contemporary satire is Kurt Vonnegut's novel God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. The author tells the life of Eliot Rosewater, a young and affluent man troubled by the plights of the poor. Eliot is the President of the Rosewater Foundation, a sum of money worth approximately $87 million. Using this position, he does everything he can to help the poor. This charity giving is socially unacceptable to the wealthy, particularly Eliot's father Senator Lister Ames Rosewater. Vonnegut uses caricature, irony, and tone to satirize the lack of care the rich have for those socially "beneath them."
An example of satire that Kurt Vonnegut uses is when he designs the government of San Lorenzo. San Lorenzo is a small island somewhere in the Caribbean. The people in San Lorenzo are doomed to failure no matter what leader they have, and they have always been this way. San Lorenzo, in the novel, is pictured as one of the most unsuccessful and useless places on earth. The people there are very poor, do not have much to eat, and do not have any motivation left at all, "Johnson and McCabe had failed to raise the people from the misery and muck" (Scholes 133). Thus, that is why they do not care anymore who there leader is going to be, because they know that they are going to fail anyway, "Everybody was bound to fail, for San Lorenzo was as unproductive as an equal area i...
Social Satire: “trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly”, as defined by Merriam-Webster Online. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury uses social satire in a most direct way to expose censorship today. When Bradbury wrote this book, censorship was just creeping into the lives of humans, and today censorship has built a protective bubble around everything we do. Fahrenheit 451’s satire of censorship is aimed at American media and mind, American society, and our entertainment.
Thoughtful laughter is a technique used frequently in satirical pieces in literature. It allows for the audience to enjoy the wittiness of a work, later ponder on the meaning, and then apply the message to reality. Thoughtful laughter is often an inner experience that can only be achieved by authors who write meticulously. Two examples of satirical works in literature that display this concept explicitly are Voltaire’s Candide and C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. Both authors explore the depths of satire and simultaneously deliver an important message to readers through skillful technique.
Brown, Earl B., Jr. "Kosinski's Modern Proposal: The Problem of Satire in the Mid-Twentieth Century." Ebscohost. N.p., 1980. Web. Mar.-Apr. 2014.
The author states that the goal of his book is three-fold. The primary two are; that it would be a time-saver for instructors who have difficulty dealing with the common writing problems of their students, and that it would help to alleviate students anxiety about writing by clarifying points that many instructors presume their pupils all know. He does this by setting down guidelines for approaching writing, doing pertinent research, and conveying it, along with analysis, in the medium of stylistic film essays. He provides an abundance of examples of structures, styles, and terms used in this area of writ. The guidelines I found to be extremely useful, for they pertain not just to writing about film, but to any sort of analytical writing. They helped me realize the qualities that my own writing lacks, and I must come to master if I am to articulately present my own subjective experience on paper.
One form of satire that particularly stands out is his use of diction. Both speakers are so focused on oppresing on the other group that they allow emotions to invade their arguments. For example in
America today is full of contradicting and often harsh criticisms of society, groups of people, trends, the media, and more. But the most accessible form of criticism is satire, which takes the form of music, movies, and television shows to name a few. Satire is meant to be humorous, which is why it is most seen in entertainment. A classic example of satire is Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” poem in which he satirizes people who have no empathy for the poor. In a similar fashion, popular television show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia centers around and satirizes an ensemble of characters whose personalities reflect many stereotypical American people and the views that they hold.
Although Alexander Pope's, "The Rape Of The Lock" and Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" are both witty satires, they differ on their style, intention, and mood.
In conclusion, the use of elements of post modernism add a richness to literature and to the reading experience of the reader. Elements such as irony, magic realism and fragmentation cause people to think and make connections between the literature they are reading and how it relates to their own lives and the lives of the authors and other readers. The short stories studied in Ms. Reynolds 4U English class all contained many effective post modern elements that made students go more in depth with their reading and understanding of noted English literature. Perhaps some people were enlightened and adopted a postmodern view on the world.
Satire is defined as “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues” (Oxford). The best satirical writers can make the readers believe that an idea is “logical and practical.” This is seen in great abundance in Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World. Through his writing, Huxley uses satire to effectively point out the flaws of society at the time. Even though Brave New World was written in 1931, the satirical points Huxley makes are still relevant in today’s world.
Film and literature are two media forms that are so closely related, that we often forget there is a distinction between them. We often just view the movie as an extension of the book because most movies are based on novels or short stories. Because we are accustomed to this sequence of production, first the novel, then the motion picture, we often find ourselves making value judgments about a movie, based upon our feelings on the novel. It is this overlapping of the creative processes that prevents us from seeing movies as distinct and separate art forms from the novels they are based on.