Father Bombo and Satirical Failure

538 Words3 Pages
Father Bombo and Satirical Failure The sloppy burlesque painted in Father Bombo’s Pilgrimage to Mecca would have best served humanity if it had burned with the Nassau Hall at the College of New Jersey in 1802. The mock epic displayed in the story attempts to burlesque the “gap between academic pretense and actual ignorance,”(1iv preface to novel) and presents a sophomoric and immature handling of the subject matter. The story pitifully strives to mimic the satire of Candide by Voltaire and falls short of this margin exponentially. Considering the development of academia during the 1770’s and specifically the climate in which the students lived, the story conveys a sense of “transition that had been spawned by the American Revolution.”2 (p. ix preface to novel) Father Bombo’s journey is spawned when he is plagiarizes the classical Syrian satirist Lucian. Thus, Bombo bumbles through a quest to seek penance for his erroneous behavior. The theme of random disaster, and coping with such, runs throughout the entire work. Bombo explains, “No sooner had I spoken thus than the clerk gave me a most violent stroke over the head and ordered me to hold my tongue instantly.” Later, on his ship voyage across the Atlantic, he describes how he “was hauled by two sailors on a sledge to the forepart of the vessel and mounted on a high scaffold…then a rope was put around my neck.” Clearly Bombo experiences the treachery of life and attempts to endure it with a naïve a acceptance of reality. Finally, after his travails, Father Bombo settles down in the country, and lives the rest of his days in peace. There are allusions to contemporary students throughout the book, but there is no clear definition of who is who. There is no Pangloss to juxtapose to the protagonist, and there is no defined development of allegory. Indeed, the story merely shows
Open Document