A False Sense of Reality

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A False Sense of Reality The poem, “Federal Case”, is a piece written by Julie O’Callaghan who was born in Chicago in 1954, but has chosen to reside in Ireland since 1974. Throughout the poem, O’Callaghan synthesizes an array of feeble-minded colloquial diction and the dual meaning of words and phrases in order to satirize America’s skewed sense of priorities and to bring forth our fabricated sense of freedom propagated throughout our commercialized and image-obsessed nation. Throughout the piece, O’Callaghan somewhat utilizes reverse psychology to indirectly mock the intellect of the American people. By speaking in our common dialect, native to the United States, the author better communicates with the reader by making him physically listen to how unintelligent some people actually sound now-a-days. She uses the word “cuz” (line 4), which is obviously shortened from “because” to emphasize the dying importance of correct grammatical usage and literature in our society, and instead the rise of importance in technology which is especially prevalent in our youth. “Text talk” shortens sentences such as: “Hello, what are you up to?” to “Yo, sup?” Although it may be much more convenient to stray away from the formal method of speaking, we do not realize that constantly using short-cuts and misspelling words does, and will affect the sophistication of our speech in the long run. Our writing skills will soon diminish, and any sense of personal connection that language once created will be gone. Not only is our language shortened for convenience, but the preparation of our diet is as well. Like “text-talk”, which instantly gets one’s message across, restaurants such as McDonalds and Burger King provide a similar instant gratification but with one’s hunger. The rise in the fast food industry is at an all-time high. People choose
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