Satire is one of the most powerful tools a writer has in his arsenal. Humor can level an uneven playing field, disarm an opposing argument, expose a jarring fallacy in the logic of an opponent. “A Letter to the Warner Brothers, by Groucho Marx, and “American Autumn”, by Mark Steyn, both demonstrate the wide ranging and potent effect highly developed satire can lend a text in achieving its purpose and reaching its audience. However, when you go beyond the surface value, there is an incredible difference - the reader can see the two individual faces of satire, the juvenalian and harsher horatian, peering out from behind the rhetoric of each text.
The cornerstone of both these satires lie in hyperbole. Each author uses exaggeration to build …show more content…
Steyn inflates the Occupy Wall Street protests to fit the narrative of “pampered, elderly children of a fin de civilisation overdeveloped world” struggling to come to terms that life is not “ unending vacation whose bill never comes due.” However despite these outlandish nature of these hyperboles, there lies truth.Groucho has not only personified the corporate greed the fielded his lawsuit in his caricature of “Ferdinand Balboa Warner” selling his walking stick “for a hundred shares common”, but he has exposes laughable fallacy of Warner …show more content…
Tone and purpose differ beyond comprehension. Marx is using his text take a playful jab at his legal opponent, Steyn is using the edge of his wit to bitterly flay a movement he sees to epitomize everything wrong with American youth. Marx avoids the harsh unrelenting criticism that characterizes Steyn’s text, opting for the use of lighter humor. The goal is exasperation not confrontation, and his text is pockmarked with attempts at infuriating the Warner Brothers. Marx mocks the seriousness of the situation by responding in a manner antithetical to the gravitas evoked in “long, ominous legal document warning [him] not to use the name ‘Casablanca’” was supposed to sway him. He is tangential, spiralling off into a largely useless description of Harry Applebaum remembered for his mother's apple-strudel baking finesse, and he is absurd, weaving an slaphappy description of the late Burbank seems to have no relation to what he is saying and where he is going. Regardless of this, one thing that Marx refuses to show in his text is anger - he refuses to make the Warner Brothers his enemies. Marx remarks, “I love Warners. Some of my best friends are Warner Brothers”, and it’s through this cheery, almost sappy, optimism that Marx truly makes a mockery of whole ordeal Warner’s has fielded. Steyn’s tone and approach on the other hand, strays far from the path Marx chose. Steyn’s tone is acidic,
The cornerstone of both these satires lie in hyperbole. Each author uses exaggeration to build …show more content…
Steyn inflates the Occupy Wall Street protests to fit the narrative of “pampered, elderly children of a fin de civilisation overdeveloped world” struggling to come to terms that life is not “ unending vacation whose bill never comes due.” However despite these outlandish nature of these hyperboles, there lies truth.Groucho has not only personified the corporate greed the fielded his lawsuit in his caricature of “Ferdinand Balboa Warner” selling his walking stick “for a hundred shares common”, but he has exposes laughable fallacy of Warner …show more content…
Tone and purpose differ beyond comprehension. Marx is using his text take a playful jab at his legal opponent, Steyn is using the edge of his wit to bitterly flay a movement he sees to epitomize everything wrong with American youth. Marx avoids the harsh unrelenting criticism that characterizes Steyn’s text, opting for the use of lighter humor. The goal is exasperation not confrontation, and his text is pockmarked with attempts at infuriating the Warner Brothers. Marx mocks the seriousness of the situation by responding in a manner antithetical to the gravitas evoked in “long, ominous legal document warning [him] not to use the name ‘Casablanca’” was supposed to sway him. He is tangential, spiralling off into a largely useless description of Harry Applebaum remembered for his mother's apple-strudel baking finesse, and he is absurd, weaving an slaphappy description of the late Burbank seems to have no relation to what he is saying and where he is going. Regardless of this, one thing that Marx refuses to show in his text is anger - he refuses to make the Warner Brothers his enemies. Marx remarks, “I love Warners. Some of my best friends are Warner Brothers”, and it’s through this cheery, almost sappy, optimism that Marx truly makes a mockery of whole ordeal Warner’s has fielded. Steyn’s tone and approach on the other hand, strays far from the path Marx chose. Steyn’s tone is acidic,