Alexa Mijares Mrs. Pagani AP Composition 26 March 2012 Dear Mr. Smarmy, I understand your concern regarding Jonathon Swift’s A Modest Proposal and how outlandish and corrupt his proposition may be when not read in-between the lines. From the outside, it appears that Swift is some sort of child-eating monster with absolutely no morals whatsoever. Yet it must be understood that Swift is regarded as one of the world’s leading satirist and A Modest Proposal is merely a way to grab the reader’s attention to present the real issue at hand. Personally, I agree that although the way Swift presents his view in a rather harsh way, he makes valid points on how desperate the situation has become in Ireland. My position that A Modest Proposal is not despicable lies within the irony of the entire piece.
O'Brien creates an intentional paradox for his readers when he writes the violent, but grabbing story of Rat Kiley and then at the end of the story, tells the reader that the characters and events of the story did not happen just as he described them, but that they happened in a totally different way to other people. But he insists that the story is true. With this, O'Brien challenges the reader to discover the truth of the event. O'Brien gets the reader to figure out what fiction of this book is actually worth. Firstly, did O'Brien confuse the reader when he said that the events did not happen after the reader became involved in those events?
Adams also goes into the over all effect of the story. Critics such as DuBois and White both have opposing views on the story. White says that it’s the lies stringed together that make this story fun and entertaining to read, but DuNois say that because he stringed all of these lies together, it makes the story really phony. To explain whites stance more, he says that
Nicks opinion on other characters means that the reader makes conclusions based on them, even though they may not be true; it is just his point of view. ‘Stretched tight over her rather wide hips’ Nick says this about Myrtle which causes the reader to gain an impression of this character, although it could just be exaggerated from Nick’s perspective. The reader is made to think Tom is quite short tempered and aggressive, ‘his determination to have my company bordered on violence’. Because this is what we read, we characterise Tom Buchanan as an aggressive person. This chapter includes anecdotes which convey the theme of social class throughout the novel.
Corbett expresses his feelings towards censoring one of the greatest novels of all time and how it should not be done. Corbett states in his article that there have been multiple breakouts of protests to censor The Catcher in the Rye, and that they will continue to breakout. Corbett also states in the article that the language is obscene, profane, and crude. There have been people that do say this but Corbett has a good point that the language in todays youth is much worse than it is in the novel. Corbett also says that the seeing the language in print is very shocking, but the point that is trying to be sent here is that any language in literature on a page can be shocking even if it is not that bad, but when it comes down to speaking the obscene language in public, it suddenly becomes much worse.
The only real safe name is Ernest.” (Act l). The fact that John goes along with this lie is an indication of irony, because in contradicting himself he follows with the definition of being earnest. Irony also emerges in the play when Algy is discussing with Jack and has doubts about his true identity. After Algy analyzes Jack’s business cards he states, “It is perfectly absurd you’re saying that your name isn’t Ernest. It is on your cards” (Act I).
Aunty Jean is significant in communicating to the reader how negative Martyn’s view of authority figures is, because using his interaction with her as source material the reader can see his mistrust and hatred of Aunty Jean, therefore it is clear that Martyn views Aunty Jean in a very negative way: ‘Thought of Aunty Jean made my stomach turn.’ The verb ‘turn’ describes Martyn’s uneasiness and the fact that he feels physically unwell at the thought of having to live with Aunty Jean. We the reader are able to deduce from this, just how much Martyn’s opinion of her has been negatively impacted by his father’s views. Martyn has no reason to suspect that Aunty Jean would be cruel to him or that she would be worse to live with, all of his hatred and wariness about her stems directly from his father’s own opinion and what he has heard his father say about her. Therefore Aunty Jean is central to the reader’s understanding of Martyn’s immature outlook on adult figures, and how much living with an alcoholic father has shaped his view of authority figures. Brooks also presents her through Martyn’s perspective as evil and sub-humanly disgusted, the thought of her makes him feel physically ill, in order to show how much Martyn needs her to prove his assumptions wrong so that he can grow up and mature.
One can only assess Marlowe’s personality through the biased opinion of the narrator himself. Therefore, it is the readers’ responsibility to question how much truth is behind Marlowe’s storytelling. Without honesty, the story can be slanted to make the other heroic qualities appear where they are in fact not. Because Chandler does a great job of making Marlowe so charming, readers get easily distracted from the fact that the entire plot is subjective. Marlowe’s credibility comes into question through his self-portrayal, through his manipulation of his readers into accepting his own limited and unsupported suspicions of other characters, and through his near superhuman ability to be in the “right” place at the right time.
However, within the same chapter the reader can see that this is not true, as Nick makes several judgements including when he hears about Tom’s adultery: ‘my own instinct was to telephone immediately for the police’, thus demonstrating his hypocrisy. This use of first person narrator not only enables Fitzgerald to give a more realistic insight into a lavish lifestyle (including direct conversations with all of the characters involved), but it also shows Nick’s emotions and motives, allowing the reader to recognise his faults and the irony in the title to the novel too; Gatsby may not be considered ‘Great’ at all, it is simply Nick’s subjective viewpoint. Furthermore, his opinion may not always be trusted when considering that he is drunk in chapter two and he admits: ‘everything that happened has a dim, hazy cast over it,’ and so Nick becomes an increasingly unreliable man of honesty. Thus corruption is evident from the beginning, even in one who began as one of the most admirable characters of the book. Fitzgerald also has each of his characters representing a feature of what American society has become.
The way Buddy talks about Esther I think affects her. When somebody you care about makes you feel like crap that it really takes a toll on you. You want to how much you appreciate and admire the person you care about, not have them dampen them with a lack of interest, making yourself feel better, and a misunderstanding of how to treat a woman. Esther idolizes Buddy but he never really felt the same way about her as he looked at her more as a sex partner. The novel talks about things regarding sexism by showing how Buddy's sense of manliness and superiority is built on what he thinks of himself, not who he actually is, hypocritical in a sense.