Satire Introduction Vocabulary Activity (20 points)

English 4 Semester 1

Unit 2 – The Canterbury Tales:  Exploring Motivation through Satire

Satire Introduction Vocabulary Activity (20 points)

Identify which device is employed in each of the following. Some devices may be repeated.

Devices:

Overstatement (hyperbole)

Understatement

Sarcasm

Invective

Dramatic Irony

Situational Irony

Verbal Irony

Parody

1. “A man can have a belly you could house commercial aircraft in and a grand total of eight greasy strands of hair, which he grows real long and combs across the top of his head so that he looks, when viewed from above, like an egg in the grasp of a giant spider, plus this man can have B.O. to the point where he interferes with radio transmissions, and he will still be convinced that, in terms of attractiveness, he is borderline Don Johnsons.” (From Revenge of the Pork Person by Dave Barry)

Device

Image of Charlie Chaplin as Adolf Hitler.

Attribution: By Trailer screenshot – The Great Dictator trailer, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8971703

Device

• Consider the bolded portion of this dialogue from from the 2005 movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory:

Willy Wonka: Do you like my meadow? Try some of my grass! Please have a blade, please do, it’s so delectable and so darn good looking!

Charlie Bucket: You can eat the grass?

Willy Wonka: Of course you can! Everything in this room is eatable, even I’m eatable! But that is called “cannibalism,” my dear children, and is in fact frowned upon in most societies.

Device

• In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Friar Lawrence sends a messenger to tell Romeo about Juliet’s plan to take a drug and fall into into deathlike coma. The messenger fails to deliver this vital piece of information, and Romeo is led to believe that Juliet is actually dead. We (the audience) know that Juliet is really only unconscious, and we watch in horror as Romeo poisons himself because he cannot live without her.

Device

• “I never forget a face, but in your case, I’ll be glad to make an exception.” (Comedian Groucho Marx)

Device

• “It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.” (From Blandings Castle by P.G. Wodehouse)

Device

•  In “The Cask of Amontillado”, an unsuspecting Fortunato is being led to his death by his former friend Montresor. As Montresor lures Fortunato into the catacombs under his house with the intention of burying him alive. Fortunato is coughing. His cough is growing more severe the further underground that they go.  Montresor asks if Fortunato would like to turn back. Fortunato answers, “I shall not die of a cough.” Montresor knowingly replies, “True – true.”

Device

• In the movie Monsters, Inc., it is the job of the corporation’s monster employees to scare children when, in fact, the monsters are afraid of the children.

Device

• The author here is speaking about telephone call centers:

“‘Call’ is valid. But ‘centre’? These things, these instruments of torture, these cheese-paring, moronic… children of the sclerotic brains of purse-lipped accountants and the madness of perpetually pre-adolescent computer programmers, are not central to anything except their companies’ urge to save money.” (Michael Bywater, Lost Worlds. Granta Books, 2004)

Device

1. In the short story “The Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry, two small-time crooks, Bill and Sam, kidnap a small boy from a rich family with the intent of making his family pay a ransom for his return. The boy, Johnny, is a brat with a wild, merciless imagination; his aggressive make-believe games make Bill and Sam fear for their own safety. When the crooks send a letter demanding ransom money from the boy’s father, he replies with a letter that says that if the crooks will pay him $250, he will be willing to take the boy off their hands; otherwise, they can keep him. Instead of making money, Bill and Sam end up paying the $250 to get rid of the boy.

Device