Jack

Select one character from the chapter on and write about him in detail. Use two citations in your description.

I am picking the character 'Jack' because of his immense importance in the first chapter. He first shows himself when him and his little group of choir kids comes out of the forest to the call of the conch. Once they all take off their cloaks he "was tall, thin and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness" (Golding 18) This shows that he is a little older than the rest of the choir boys because of his height, and since he has to command them, he can't be silly about it, or they wont listen. His face looks ugly with this lack of silliness because he is very serious in his command of the smaller children. '"I ought to be chief,' said Jack with simple arrogance, 'because I'm chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp."'

Chill Quoting

"'History,' said Joyce's Dedalus, 'is a nightmare from which I am trying to wake'. But we do not awake. Though we constantly make a heroic attempt to rise to a level ethically superior to nature, our own nature, again and again we suffer a fall- brought low by some outburst of madness because of the limiting defects inherent in our species" (Barker xv).

This is an intriguing quote because of how in-depth it is in the world we live in today. Once we see that "History is a nightmare from which I am trying to wake" is in here, you can tell that something is going down. The author of the quote is literally saying that they wish they could take back somethings, or maybe even do more things than they had. The next part of the quote is saying that we all make heroic attempts that don't seem possible to the standards of natures' power, but very few of them come to be something of heroic measure. She then goes on to say that "again and again we suffer a fall", meaning we always have a big time low, which is called the abyss, and its different for everyone. This is brought on by the human race always trying to bring down each other, so we ourselves don't feel bad.

An Essay for the Modest Proposal

As the history of writing has increased to a standard that is essential for living, many different writing styles have popped up around the world. Satire really takes the cake, on the most interesting one. In Ireland, A man named Johnathan Swift was the father of satire. He wanted to get a point across, and so he invented a different way of writing, that would forever change society. This new way of writing is called satire; a way to say something, and have only the smartest of people know that you are actually bashing against a group of people who have made a mistake. Swift wrote an essay to get people to see his point of view, and this essay was just the start of a much more in depth subject later on in history. Satire may be up for questioning on if it actually works, so here are some reasons why it, in-fact does if these things are made clear; a societal ill was exposed, a corrupt person of power, and an ignorant action.

Swift is a very smart man, always writing for the paper, and helping out his community as a wealthy man, but there was a ill in society that was really getting at him. That ill, was the fact that those who walk through Ireland could see that "cabin doors, are all crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three four or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms" (Swift 1). Well, this ill was actually only half of the problem. The other problem was that nobody was doing anything about all of these people starving on the streets. This is where the sarcastic satire comes in; Swift proposes that "a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food" (Swift 3). This is Swifts way of getting rid of all the starving people on the streets. If they weren't helping in keeping Ireland alive in the times of British rampancy, then they should help in a different way; more food. He is not actually wanting people to start eating the babies of poor folk, he is simply using loads of sarcasm and irony to get his point across that things need to change with these poor people. He then goes on using rationalism and logic to say a whole bunch of numbers about how many people in Ireland would be fed if they started to eat children. He actually says it in a logical way, meaning, if you didn't understand the satire, you would agree that this could  be a good idea for this problem. The wrong-doing in society was very much exposed with this amazing essay, therefore. step one of a good satire is complete.

Another part of a good satire is that the writer needs to point out if there is a corrupt commander. People look up to people of power, so if these people make bad decisions, their underlings will try and follow them to their watery grave, so to speak. Swift does a great job of taking the corrupt politicians off their thrones, when he states " this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, and flesh being of too tender a consistence  to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country, which would be glad to eat up our entire nation without it" (Swift 9). Swift is literally saying that England's rich folk would rather eat imported, maggot infested human meat, than just give up some of their salt factories so that the Irish can support themselves and take care of their own problems. In a way, he is simply saying they are barbaric, with his grotesque sarcasm. This is kind of like a video, where the government is asking for more and more money, when they haven't even gotten their first priorities done with; they are already preparing for whats to come next (Trapwire). Swift then goes on to say that "I have no children by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being 9 years old, and my wife past child-bearing" (Swift 9). Swift is now just mocking and making fun of other ideas that have come forth to save the poor people in Ireland. He is stating that "yes this is an amazing idea, but no I will not be taking part in it." This is the sort of thing that other people that have come up with ideas have said at the end of their essays, or something just as unreasonable. The tone can only be described as disappointment  because Swift is sad that nobody has come up with a way of getting these people back on their feet.

An ignorant mistake is the third thing that makes a satire work. When someone does something, without thinking about the consequences, or the people they are hurting, one can make a satire about them. This is exactly what Swift does. Swift starts to tackle the rich when he says, "beside the profit of a new dish introduced to the tables of all gentlemen of fortune in the kingdom who have any refinement in taste" (Swift 6). When one analyzes this, they can come to the conclusion that Swift is bashing on wealthy people for not helping out the poor people with food and that of the sort; and they would rather eat human flesh than to do so. Swift also states that "I shall now therefore humbly propose my ow thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection" (Swift 3). Using sarcasm and irony, he is saying that he actually has no humbleness whatsoever, and we should raise our kids as cattle; so that they may die and be eaten and skinned for food and clothes. He really hates that none of the rich folk are helping out the less fortunate with survival, so he writes this satire to show just that.

Satire is really interesting with its different ways of showing ills and corruptness's in society and powerful figures as a whole. Satire works, and Jonathan Swift has proven that for us with his amazing essay A Modest Proposal. Satire was a breakthrough for the human race, for it has shone many people that what they are doing is wrong, and it works the majority of the time, as long as the person understands the satire. As was said above, Swift was the creator of satire. He needed a way to get people to listen, so he came up with an unspeakable idea to do so, and it worked. If there is a problem in society, satire is a great way to show people what is going on. If there is a need for a change, satire is the number one place to go. Satire is confusing, misleading, and irrational, but it does its best to keep humanity in line. Satire is like a pot of delicious human stew; if one puts in a child at the right age, and the perfect amount of salt, it will be the most scrumptious and wholesome meal said person has ever had, and they may never go back to their normal selections. Keep this in mid when writing satire; it will work if you have the right ingredients.

SATIRE VIDEO OPINION

So over the last few days, my class and I have had to bring in a satire video, and present to everyone else why it is satire so we get a sense of what satire is (mine is up on this blog about 2 posts ago). Mine was about the government, specifically the CIA, and it was also saying how Americans are dumb, and don't do anything unless they get something in return. Well, enough of that, I'm going to talk about other people videos.

In general, a good percentage of the videos had racism and/or stupid Americans doing stupid things. The different branches of Americans being racist and dumb were as follows: religious views, gun control, need of technology (mainly Facebook and apple products), make-up products for women, people being blatantly racist, and Americans being major hypocrites while pointing fingers at other Americans (stubbornness). I really enjoyed the videos on religious views and and gun control; because both of those are in our first 10 amendments. It's just hilarious to watch people argue over things that will not be changed no matter how much you want it to. In this one video on religious views, some ignorant American said on national news that a women should be put in prison for wearing a burka, which is worn by many women in the Muslim culture. The fact that anyone would even say this is just disgusting. I think they should be put in prison for saying something like that (you could even make a satire out of me if you really wanted to from that). I have learned quite a lot about satire from this past week of satire videos, and I very much think satire is a great way to show off someones faults.

Jonathan Swift and all His Swiftness

Jonathan Swift was quite an interesting man,

When he was born on Nov. 30, 1667; he had no father.

Thus being born into a poor family, he was given to his rich uncle.

He was then put into a very preppy private school,

Where he would get his bachelors degree at the age of 14.

He might have married back in 1716, its not fully known.

Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through. (Jonathan Swift)

Swift, the greatest writer of English prose, and the greatest man who has ever written great English prose.

(T.S. Eliot, The Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry, 1926)

Where I got these quotes; go check them out.

http://grammar.about.com/od/rhetoricstyle/a/SwiftSimple.htm

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jonathan_swift.html#X1XFoePpsAoQxYDR.99

Satire, and its Deepest Secrets

Satire itself has quite the story behind it. It has so many aspects that need  explaining, I don't even know what to do with myself. Luckily, I found this video on YouTube that has quite a bit of satire in it. The main type of satire in this video is first; that it's a parody, and second; there is tons of burlesque. The government agents in this video are talking about keeping our country safe from terrorists; "we are using security cameras in metro areas to look for suspicious persons, who might be pre-planning terrorist attacks." (Trapwire) This is an example of a normal thing governments might try to do, therefore making this video a parody from the very start. The man next explains, "here's an example: lets say someone in a restaurant is eating a banana; then we get a seemingly unrelated report that the potassium in bananas can be used for making bombs." (Trapwire) This is still the parody because they are doing what any good government would do and try to keep its citizens safe, but they are also adding some burlesque in there because they are exaggerating immensely when the agents then shoot down the citizen for having and eating the banana. The two agents then go on to say how expensive it is to keep our country safe; only 1.5 million dollars; basically making an incredibility unreasonable donation amount.

Now for the deeper meaning of this video: they are completely satirizing the government, and the CIA. All throughout the video, these two are saying things that the CIA themselves might say (but obviously they do it with more emotion than the CIA). So for the first example I said above: they are making this video a parody. Then for the second example, they talk about how they gun down the man eating the banana. This would never happen in real life (I hope); this is the burlesque kicking in. The deeper meaning is that the government is trying to keep this country as safe as possible. But instead, they are just causing way more issues; like a false accusation of a civilian for being dangerous, but they are just trying to live their life. The people in the video then go on and say there are rewards for donating. This is satirizing the American people themselves by saying that they wont donate unless there is something in it for them, hence not making it a donation at all.