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Personification
Definition of Satire
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of satire, but satirists can take... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians... read full definition
Chapter 34
Explanation and Analysis—School Priorities:
The novel uses simile and metaphor in a passage that satirizes the emphasis on sports, particularly football, in many American high schools. After Angus tries and fails to procure funding from the school administration for an "academic team" that could compete in state-level competitions, she and Demon discuss their school's priorities:
Defeat only made Angus more determined. I didn’t get it. I asked if she was jealous over me getting all my art attention, and she said art, was I kidding? If I wanted to discuss unfairness, let’s talk about football. Uniforms, equipment, buses to away games, state championships. The school board threw money at all that like water on a house fire. And I was like, Angus. It’s football. Take that out of high school, it’s church with no Jesus. Who would even go?
At first, Demon believes that Angus is jealous because his drawings have received a good deal of praise from art teacher Ms. Annie. Angus, however, insists that football, rather than art, is the object of her ire, as their school "threw money at that like water on a house fire," a simile that underscores the strong emphasis on sports, rather than academics, in the Lee County school board. Demon, who hopes to join the high school football team, claims that a high school without football would be "church with no Jesus." In this metaphor, he identifies football, rather than education, as the core of high school, just as the figure of Jesus Christ is at the center of Christian worship. In this passage, Kingsolver satirizes the outsized role of football in American high schools.
