Satire has been used throughout the world to change the ill of the society. Satire is a use of irony and sarcasm to attack and criticize the target and it's ultimate goal is to change the society. Jonathan Swifts's A Modest Proposal is a from of formal satire that is in first person and uses irony and sarcasm to target Britain abusing the Irish. The proposal appealed to the British people and resulted in the independence of Ireland. However, although the A Modest Proposal was successful and effective, satire in general is not effective enough to change the society.
In the A Modest Proposal, Swift attracts the readers eyes and alarms their minds by using offensive languages such as ", that a healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled" (Swift 3), and "A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends" (Swift 3). Satires can attract readers in a short period of time however, the reader will focus too much on the disturbing languages or images the satire present that they will lose the deeper real point being made. The clip The HumanCentipad is a perfect example pointing out the ineffectiveness of satires. In the film, people who sign on a cell phone contract without even reading them are satirized but what draws the attention is the horrible and almost unrealistic way of making the HumanCentipad.
Satire is often described an onion with many layers covering it because of its layered information. Depending on the readers academic levels, they will each get different understandings of the satire. Throughout the history the society is made up few numbers of elites and big numbers of general people, often uneducated or educated in a small amount. For satirists to change the society, not only they have to convinced the elite groups, they must get public support from general population who often times don't get the satire. ", although perhaps I could name a country, which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it" (Swift 9). Educated readers who understand the sarcasm would easily find out that Swift is proposing that the Britain is eager to bring all Irish goods not leaving anything behind. However, uneducated general people may believe that Swift is actually referring to the Britain trying to literally eat up the Irish babies. One may argue that the elite groups are the leading groups of the society so if satirists convince the elite group the society may change. However, Swift's A Modest Proposal was only in effect due to the general people pressuring the Parliament. Moreover, it's likely that the elite group, educated, already know the issue and humans are stubborn so once they made a mind, it's hard to turn the decision.
Sometimes, satirist can target multiple targets. Often times the targets are hard to distinguish such as the example of Finger Pointing Blame Game. In the clip, the satirist satirizes both Republicans and Democrats who points their fingers at each other. Both parties believe the satirist is in their sides. The quote for a democrat man, "Stop that finger pointing" (Daily Show), explains how he thinks the satirist is in his side. Depending on the viewers background, they possibly can get the wrong target due to the ambiguity of satires. In the quote "Men would become as fond of their wives during the time of their pregnancy as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, their sows when they are ready to farrow; not offer to beat of kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear of a miscarriage" (Swift 7), is targeting both the Irish men and the Britain which led Irish to poverty thus creates violence between husbands and wives.
Satire, is surely a great academic genre that is effective in ways. However, as the essay suggests, to change the society, rather than using a satire, proposing a straightforward thoughts is more useful because satire is often ambiguous and can be misleading.
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