Satire & Rhetorical Analysis
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The 90/90 Challenge
Part Two
The challenge begins Tuesday, November 3
Identify the choice. Explain its effect.
Satire
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Writing or performance that exposes human folly, vice, or social problems through ridicule, irony, or exaggeration.
Purpose: to criticize a target and encourage reflection or change.
Satire can be playful or harsh. Humor alone does not make a work satirical.
Satire holds up a critical mirror.
Exaggeration
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A deliberate overstatement that magnifies a feature, fault, or behavior.
“Our school has so much spirit that even the milk is orange!”
Hyperbole becomes satirical when it exposes something worth criticizing.
Exaggeration stretches reality.
Incongruity
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A mismatch between something and its setting, context, or expected role.
A school rewards perfect attendance by giving the winners a day off.
The reward conflicts with the value the school claims to promote.
The reward clashes with the goal.
Reversal
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An inversion of the usual roles, order, or power relationships.
An onion does the chopping instead of being chopped.
Reversing the roles makes familiar behavior seem strange.
Parody
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A recognizable imitation of a particular work, creator, or genre for comic or critical effect.
A school announcement copies the dramatic style of a movie trailer.
Parody imitates a style. Satire uses criticism. A work can do both.
A familiar style gets a comic imitation.
Expository Writing
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Writing that explains or informs by developing a subject with clear details and evidence.
Examples: an explanation of how satire works, a research report, or a process essay.
Exposition can support an argument, but it does not always advocate a position.
Exposition makes a subject clear.
Allegory
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A narrative whose characters, events, or settings carry a sustained second level of meaning.
In Animal Farm, the farm’s power struggles represent political revolution and corruption.
The literal story also develops a broader political, moral, or philosophical meaning.
Parable
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A short, simple story that illustrates a moral or spiritual lesson, usually through human situations.
In the Good Samaritan, a traveler helps an injured stranger whom others ignore.
The story challenges listeners to consider what it means to be a neighbor.
The story carries a moral lesson.
Parody in Film
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Which horror-film conventions does this poster imitate?
Consider the title, characters, expressions, and visual style.
Explain how the imitation changes the audience’s response.
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“Weird Al” Yankovic imitates the song and video style of “Blurred Lines.”
How does the parody shift attention from the original song to language use?
Which choices make the imitation recognizable?
The music stays familiar. The subject changes.
Satire in Popular Culture
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For each example, identify the target and the technique.
Explain what the audience is encouraged to question.
Satire in a Cartoon
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What does this cartoon criticize?
Identify one detail that uses exaggeration, incongruity, or irony.
Connect that detail to the cartoon’s criticism.
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The Onion publishes satirical news that imitates the style of journalism.
Read a selected headline or article. Identify its target and its absurd premise.
Explain how the realistic news style strengthens the criticism.
A realistic news form carries an absurd premise.
Irony
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A meaningful gap between words and intended meaning, expectation and outcome, or a character’s knowledge and the audience’s.
Verbal: a gap in meaning.
Situational: a gap in expectations.
Dramatic: a gap in knowledge.
Any of these forms can create humor, tension, or tragedy.
Situational irony undercuts an expectation.
Verbal Irony
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A speaker deliberately says something that differs from the intended meaning, often the opposite.
During a hurricane: “What lovely weather!”
Context reveals the meaning. Sarcasm often uses verbal irony to mock.
Words and intended meaning pull apart.
Dramatic Irony
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The audience knows important information that a character does not.
In Romeo and Juliet, the audience knows Juliet is alive while Romeo believes she is dead.
The gap in knowledge creates dread as Romeo acts on his mistaken belief.
The audience knows more than the character.
Irony or Contradiction?
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Compare the messages in these neighboring advertisements.
What expectation does one message create? How does the other undercut it?
Explain whether the placement creates situational irony or simply a clash of messages.
Situational Irony
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An outcome meaningfully contradicts a reasonable expectation.
In “The Gift of the Magi,” Della sells her hair to buy Jim a watch chain. Jim sells his watch to buy her combs.
Their sacrifices make the gifts unusable for now, while revealing their love.
Their sacrifices undo the gifts’ practical use.
An Unexpected Entrance
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What expectation does a fitness center create?
How does the entrance seem to conflict with that expectation?
Consider another reading: escalators can also provide access. Explain the limits of the joke.
Paradox
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A statement or situation that seems contradictory but can reveal a defensible insight.
“The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.”
Knowledge can increase awareness of what remains unknown. Explain how both ideas can be true.
More knowledge reveals more unknowns.
Oxymoron
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A compact expression that joins apparently contradictory terms.
Examples: “deafening silence,” “sweet sorrow,” and “open secret.”
The tension is within a phrase. A paradox usually develops a broader statement or situation.
Contradictory terms share one phrase.
Oxymoron in Context
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Why does “jumbo shrimp” sound contradictory?
Explain how “shrimp” works as both an animal’s name and a word associated with small size.
The humor depends on the words’ different meanings.
Anecdote
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A brief account of an incident, personal or observed, used to illustrate a point.
A writer describes one student’s struggle with a homework policy.
Anecdotes make an issue concrete. One story alone does not establish a general pattern.
One vivid story illustrates a point.
Allusion
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A brief reference to a familiar text, person, event, or cultural idea that adds meaning.
“His Achilles’ heel was his temper.”
The reference to Greek myth suggests a vulnerable point. Its effect depends on the audience’s knowledge.
A known reference adds meaning.
Synecdoche
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A figure of speech in which a part represents the whole, or the whole represents a part.
“All hands on deck.” Here, “hands” means the sailors.
Look for a part–whole relationship. Pronunciation: sih-NEK-duh-kee.
The part stands for the whole.
Synecdoche in Everyday Speech
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“Wheels” can stand for a car.
“Hands” can stand for workers.
What is the literal part in each expression? What whole does it represent?
Explain why each is more specific than a merely associated term.
Metonymy
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A figure of speech that names something through a closely associated term.
“The White House issued a statement.” The building stands for the administration.
Metonymy uses association. Synecdoche specifically uses a part–whole relationship.
An associated place names the people.
Why Writers Use Metonymy
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Associated names can compress complex ideas and carry familiar connotations.
“Wall Street” can represent finance.
“Main Street” can represent local businesses or ordinary Americans.
The contrast frames whose interests matter. This is an original illustration, not a quotation.
Place names carry larger associations.
Analogy
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A comparison that explains an idea by showing a relevant similarity between things.
Learning to write is like training for a sport: practice, feedback, and revision build skill.
An analogy can use simile or metaphor. A simile uses “like” or “as.” A metaphor identifies one thing with another.
A useful similarity explains an idea.
Epithet
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A descriptive word or phrase used with, or in place of, a name to emphasize a characteristic.
“Swift-footed Achilles” highlights the hero’s speed.
In other contexts, “epithet” can mean an insulting label. Context determines the meaning.
A descriptive label emphasizes a trait.
Epithets in Popular Culture
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“Magic” Johnson emphasizes extraordinary basketball skill.
“The Man of Steel” emphasizes Superman’s strength and durability.
Explain how each label shapes the audience’s impression.
Idiom
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An established expression whose intended meaning differs from, or cannot be fully inferred from, its literal words.
“Break a leg” means “good luck,” especially before a performance.
Idioms depend on shared language and cultural knowledge. Literal translation can confuse their meaning.
The intended meaning goes beyond the words.
Idioms and Their Meanings
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“Pulling my leg” means joking or teasing.
“Tied the knot” means got married.
“Chew on it” means think it over.
“The devil is in the details” means small details can cause significant problems.
Explain the figurative meaning, then use one idiom in context.
An idiom needs a figurative reading.
Literal and Figurative Meaning
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What does the speaker intend by the idiom in this cartoon?
How does the other character interpret the words literally?
Explain how the mismatch creates humor.
Idioms in an Image
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Choose two expressions in this illustration.
Explain each expression’s figurative meaning and describe its literal image.
How does the illustration help the expressions become memorable?
“Raining Cats and Dogs”
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This idiom means that it is raining very heavily.
What does a literal picture of the words add to the expression?
Separate the idiom’s meaning from claims about its historical origin.
An Idiom’s Uncertain Origin
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The exact origin of “raining cats and dogs” is uncertain.
The Library of Congress discusses several theories. It does not establish one as the proven origin.
The story about animals sliding from thatched roofs is unsupported. A memorable explanation still needs evidence.
An appealing origin story still needs evidence.
Rhetorical Question
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A question posed mainly to make a point, provoke thought, or guide an audience rather than obtain an answer.
“Who wants to live in a world without books?”
The question invites agreement by treating the implied answer as obvious.
The implied answer makes the point.
Aphorism
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A concise statement that expresses an insight or general observation about life.
“Less is more.”
Aphorisms often have known authors, but known authorship is not a requirement. The category overlaps with proverbs and maxims.
A brief statement offers an insight.
Aphoristic Statements
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Juliet’s rose comparison suggests that names do not determine a thing’s nature.
Forrest Gump’s box-of-chocolates comparison suggests life is unpredictable.
Both function as memorable general observations. Both also use figurative comparisons.
Proverb
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A traditional, widely circulated saying that expresses practical wisdom or a general truth.
“A stitch in time saves nine.”
“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.”
Proverbs are shared cultural sayings. Their earliest authors are often unknown.
A traditional saying carries shared wisdom.
Maxim
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A short statement that expresses a rule or guiding principle for behavior.
“Think before you speak.”
“Look before you leap.”
These terms overlap: a traditional maxim can also be a proverb, and an aphorism can offer advice.
A short principle guides behavior.
Apostrophe
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Direct address to an absent or dead person, an abstract idea, or something nonhuman as if it could respond.
“O Death, where is your sting?”
Original example: “O time, slow down.”
Apostrophe often involves personification, but direct address is its defining feature.
The speaker addresses something unable to answer.
Anachronism
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Something placed in a time period where it does not belong.
A medieval knight checks a smartphone.
In Julius Caesar, a striking clock appears in ancient Rome.
Ancient Romans had timekeeping devices. The later striking clock is the mismatch.
The object belongs to a different era.
Terms at a Glance
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Satire: exaggeration, incongruity, reversal, parody
Irony: verbal, dramatic, situational
Meaning: allegory, parable, allusion, idiom
Comparison: analogy, simile, metaphor
Substitution: metonymy, synecdoche, epithet
Tension: paradox, oxymoron
Other choices: anecdote, rhetorical question, apostrophe, anachronism, expository writing
Sayings: aphorism, proverb, maxim
Link each term to a choice and an effect.