Use of Humor and Language Techniques in Monbiot's Article "Modest Proposal for Youth Scourge"

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In the article “Modest Proposal for Youth Scourge”, we see George Monbiot expressing his opinion about young people. Monbiot is making fun of those in society who want to go to extreme methods to keep youth out of public places - by using emotive and figurative language, tone and humour.

At the beginning of the article, particularly in the first paragraph, you believe that Monbiot is serious about the topic. But by the end of the second paragraph, you begin to suspect that Monbiot is using humour and taking the subject of the text as a joke. He refers to young people as ‘human vermin’ and claims that they are inclined to make unpleasant and distressing noises. In resolution to this ‘vermin’ problem, he mentions a way of keeping youth off of the streets - by using acoustic deterrence, which was previously used to repel rats, mice, and cockroaches. To sum up briefly, Monbiot compares youth to vermin and at this point - we are still not sure whether he is serious or not.

After referring to youth as vermin, Monbiot begins to recommend that youth should be completely kept out of the p...

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