The Brief And Frightening Reign Of Phil Analysis

The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders takes place in a world, unlike the current. The world has three countries that all differ in size, with the country of Inner Horner being the smallest and only being able to fit a single Inner Hornerite at a time. One day, the country of Inner Horner shirks to the point where no one can fit, and the Inner Hornerites have no choice, but to occupy some of Outer Horner’s, the country surrounding Inner Horner, land. This leaves Outer Hornerites with the a decision: do they allow the Inner Hornerites to use their land or not? Here is where the main antagonist Phil, a “bitter nobody” Outer Hornerite with a commanding voice, comes in. He suggest they tax the Inner Hornerites for using their …show more content…
Saunders recognizes the strong relationship between political power and the media which is why he decides to poke fun at it in a satirical way. Three-fourths of the way into the novella, the reader is introduced to the character of the media, which is clearly there to represent mainstream media. The media follow around Phil “spouting real-time headlines from a built-in megaphone” (Weinberger). From their introduction till almost the end of the novella, the media would release headlines with a pro-political, pro-president rhetoric. To give an example, towards the end of the novella, Phil creates a prison for the Inner Hornerites, labeling it as ‘Peace Encouraging Enclosure’. Despite the ‘Peace Encouraging Enclosure’ being described as a prison and having the same menasing prison look and feel the media declares,“PREZ TRANSFORMS VIOLENT MUDDY HOLE INTO PASTORAL PARADISE [...] PEACE FINALLY ACHIEVED AT PROBLEMATIC BORDER AREA” (Saunders 104). The media, like Phil tried doing, but a positive spin on the incarceration of the Inner Hornerites which meant that all who would hear it would only think of Phil’s plan for incarceration as a positive and see Phil, the president of Outer Horner, as a strong fair ruler. This therefore leading Phil to rise to power faster because he because more widespread and trusted due to the media’s false reportings. This is Propaganda. Author Marjorie Van de Water in 1938 spoke on propaganda and how to identify it. In regards to propaganda, he said, “Some of it will be true; some of it will be false. All will be manipulated in the telling to produce the particular effect the propagandist desires” (Van de Water 234). Van de Water later furthers his point in saying that the only way to combat propaganda is by having a “knowledge of the rules by which the propaganda works” (Van de Water 234). The media in is spewing propaganda, most of