​

​

​

​

​

The 90/90 Challenge Part Deuce

​

SATIRE & RHETORICAL ANALYSIS TERMS

​

​

​

​

​

The Challege Begins on Wednesday, 11/5

Satire (Adj- satirical; verb- satirizes)

A work that attacks human vice or foolishness using irony, wit, and sarcasm

​

• Primary purpose is to provoke a response or a reform (rather than just for entertainment)

​

​

• Tone: humorous, critical, sarcastic, sardonic (disdainfully or ironically mocking), tongue-in-cheek (gentle irony; meant as a joke), hyperbolic (exaggerated)

​

Elements of Satire

• Exaggeration- To enlarge, increase or represent something beyond normal bounds so that it becomes ridiculous and its faults can be seen
• We have so much school spirit at Valhalla even the milk is orange!

​

Elements of Satire

• Incongruity- To present things that are out of place or are absurd in relation to its surroundings
• Today in History class, we are going to play soccer!

​

Elements of Satire

• Reversal- To present the opposite of the normal order (the order of events, hierarchical order, etc.)

​

​

Elements of Satire

• Parody- To imitate the techniques and/or style of a known person, place, or thing.
• A piece of writing or music that deliberately copies another work in a comical or satirical way

Expository

Highly organized prose which presents a viewpoint supported by fact and explanation

​

Characteristics: clear thesis, examples, analysis, structured, formal

Examples:

• Essay
• Research project

Allegory (adj. Allegorical)�

The use of fictional characters and actions to represent truths about human nature

​

• Is an “extended analogy”

​

• Two levels of meaning-- the surface-level story and the deeper meaning (moral, political, philosophical, or religious)

Parable

A brief story which teaches a moral and often a religious lesson

​

• Is a type of allegory

​

• Interest lies in what things stand for rather than exactly what happens

​

• Example: Stories in the New Testament, The Alchemist

What is this a parody of?

Word crimes

​

Examples of Satire:

1. Colbert Report on Huck Finn
2. Simpsons

​

​

​

Satire Sample

What is the criticism? What elements of satire are being used?

The Onion

Irony (adj.- Ironic)

Device used to convey a meaning opposite of what is expected

​

Irony inverts our expectations. It can create the unexpected twist at the end of a joke or a story that gets us laughing — or crying.

Verbal irony tends to be funny; situational irony can be funny or tragic; and dramatic irony is often tragic.

​

​

​

Verbal irony occurs when a speaker's intention is the opposite of what he or she is saying.

​

• For example, a character stepping out into a hurricane and saying, “What nice weather we're having!”

Dramatic Irony

​

• A literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character's words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.

​

• "The final act of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare employs dramatic irony to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

​

• Friar Laurence sends a messenger to tell Romeo about Juliet’s plan to drug herself into deathlike coma. We watch in horror as the messenger fails to deliver this vital piece of information. And though we know that Juliet is not really dead, we see Romeo poison himself because he cannot live without her.

Situational Irony

• Situational irony is the irony of something happening that is very different to what was expected. Examples of situational irony would be a fire station burning down,
• ​
• In The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, a wife sells her hair to buy her husband a watch chain, and her husband sells his watch to buy her combs for her hair. Both have made sacrifices in order to buy gifts for one another, but in the end, the gifts are useless. The real gift is how much they are willing to give up to show their love for one another.

What’s ironic about this picture?

Paradox (adj. paradoxical)

A statement that seems self-contradictory but contains an underlying truth

​

• Examples:
• We had to destroy the village in order to save it.
• He is guilty of being innocent.
• You’ve got to be cruel to be kind.
• So small and trivial and useless and precious a place as Aravaipa

​

​

Oxymoron

Two contradictory words used together

​

Examples:

• Sweet pain
• Cheerful pessimist
• Civil war
• Special curse

Anecdote

A short personal account or story used to illustrate a point

​

​

Anecdotal evidence= proof derived from observation (stories one can tell to prove an assertion)

Allusion (Verb- alludes;

The author alluded to WWI as an illustration of youth being “ruined” by war…

References to material outside of the work

​

(Usually are just mentioned rather than explained as an example; must be familiar to reader to work)

1)Literary

2)Historical

3)Current events

4)Pop culture

5)Personal

Synecdoche (Sin-eck-duh-key)

A figure of speech in which a part of something represents the whole.

​

​

​

Examples of Synecdoche:

Metonymy

A figure of speech which substitutes a suggestive word for what is actually meant.

​

Examples:

• It’s all about the Benjamins baby – Puff Daddy
• “Houston, we have a problem..” in reference to NASA
• “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears” Shakespeare’s Caesar

​

*Very closely related to synecdoche

Why writers use metonymy

Metonymy can often allow writers and speakers to refer to complicated concepts or large groups of people with a single world. It also helps to create a quick mental image by using everything that the metonym evokes. For example, it was easier for President Obama to say,

​

• “We cannot only have a plan for Wall Street…We must also help Main Street.”

VS

• We cannot only have a plan for wealthy bankers and moneyed financial institutions…We must also help the average person who is more likely to live in a small town and not own a yacht.

Analogy (adj.- analogous)

A comparison of related ideas or things (A comparison of two things, where the author makes the relationship clear)

Extended analogy-

• “Pupils are more like oysters than sausages. The job of teaching is not to stuff them and then seal them up, but to help them open and reveal the riches within. There are pearls in each of us, if only we knew how to cultivate them with ardor and persistence.”
(Sydney J. Harris, "What True Education Should Do," 1964)

​

• Two types: Metaphor(A comparison of two unlike things) and simile (A comparison of two unlike things, using like or as)

Epithet

A word or phrase which is used as a name to describe a person’s special characteristic.

​

​

“Magic” Johnson

(For his “magical skills on the court)

​

• (Epithet in other contexts is an insulting word or phrase (like a racial epithet, or curse word)
• She used an epithet before leaving him at the altar.

“Man of Steel” - Superman

Examples of Epithets:

Idiom

An expression which is understood by a group of people because it has become an accepted saying; usually does not mean what it literally says

​

• Idioms are especially difficult for non-native speakers

​

• Idioms are different in every language

Examples of idioms:

• Take a hike.
• Are you pulling my leg?
• It’s raining cats and dogs.
• Break a leg.
• Take it easy.
• Tied the knot
• Don’t choke.
• Chew on it
• Basketcase
• The devil is in the details

​

​

​

​

​

“It’s raining cats and dogs!”

Where does this idiom come from?

This phrase's origin is unknown. Possible explanations include:

• Lightning and thunder sounds like that of a cat/dog fight
• Cats had a big influence on the weather, and the sky god Odin was attended to by wolves according to Norse Mythology.
• Another theory is that in old England, they had hay roofs on their houses and the cats and dogs would sleep on the roof. When it rained, the roofs got slippery and the cats and dogs would slide off of the roofs. Therefore, it was "Raining Cats and Dogs".��

Rhetorical question (erotema)

A question which is asked for effect rather than for an answer.

Aphorism

A statement that reveals a truth or principle that can be attributed to a specific person

​

​

Examples of aphorisms

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” -Shakespeare

“Life is like a box of chocolates.” - Forrest Gump

Proverb

The same as an aphorism, but is so generally known that the authorship is lost

​

Examples:

• “All that glitters isn’t gold.”
• “A rolling stone gathers no moss.”
• “Money is the root of all evil.”

Maxim

A statement that gives behavioral advice

​

Examples:

• “The early bird gets the worm.”
• “Practice makes perfect.”

Apostrophe

Addressing or speaking to a non-living thing or an absent person

​

Examples:

• “Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll.”
• “I said to Love…”
• “O eloquent, just, and mighty Death!”

​

• A form of personification

Anachronism

A reference to something which did not exist at the time of the story.

​

Example:

• The clock that strikes in Julius Caesar even though clocks did not exist in Rome during the time of Caesar

1. apostrophe
2. allusion
3. maxim
4. anecdote
5. Proverb
6. oxymoron
7. aphorism
8. paradox
9. rhetorical question
10. irony
11. idiom
12. reversal
13. epithet
14. Incongruity
15. Simile, metaphor
16. exaggeration
17. Satire, parody
18. analogy
19. Metonymy, synecdoche
20. parable
21. allegory
22. anachronism
23. expository