Analyzing The Essay 'The Braindead Megaphone' By George Saunders

The essay titled “The Braindead Megaphone” by George Saunders is an essay about the influence the media has come to have over the world as we know it. The author begins by trying to get the reader to imagine themselves at a party where one of the guests is speaking into a megaphone and the volume is very loud to the point that it begins to drown out the thoughts of the other guests. The author then asks us, the reader, to then imagine the same guest speaking over the megaphone, but this time just rambling on about random things. The author’s purpose for both of these scenarios is to set the stage and an example of how the media over the years has become so influential. The author, throughout the essay, gives examples on how the media has made us more ignorant, accepting, and desensitized to stories in the news. The author gives the example of how quick we were to act for the war in Iraq, not taking into consideration the consequences or casualties. …show more content…
The use of a megaphone throughout the essay for one is to have the reader visualize how “loud” and how widespread media influence is as compared to the use of a megaphone. A megaphone’s purpose is to reach large crowds of people and to drown out the noise of the crowd. The use of the megaphone is to make people stop and take notice of what is going on around them. The author, in the essay, not only uses the megaphone as an attention grabber for the party guests, but as a way to make the reader see just how much influence the media has begun to have on people. Unlike the one man at the party however, the media has many outlets and can reach the masses through