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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
Part 4, Chapter 3: Double Face
Explanation and Analysis—McDonald's:
Lindo Jong’s arrival to America allows readers to see the country through a new lens. The Joy Luck Club’s light satire draws upon the immigrant perspective as it finds humor in America’s quirks and flaws. Through pointed observations, Lindo shows the strangeness and irony of American mainstream culture. Her trip to the Cathay House in Part 4, Chapter 3, for instance, is a bafflingly comic experience in itself:
The Cathay House had a sign that said ‘Chinese Food,’ so only Americans went there before it was torn down. Now it is a McDonald's restaurant with a big Chinese sign that says mai dong lou—‘wheat,’ ‘east,’ ‘building.’ All nonsense. Why are you attracted only to Chinese nonsense?
Like the novel’s other satiric moments, Tan’s satire is subtle. Lindo notes the irony that only Americans eat “Chinese Food,” taking a jab at the country’s pathetic attempts at ethnic cuisine. The noted senselessness of the Chinese translation of “McDonald’s” works in similar fashion. By pointing out the “nonsense” of the Chinese characters, Lindo invites a wry smile as she criticizes a culture of globalization and mass consumerism. The Bank of America that faces St. Mary’s, after all, is the real church where “American people worship.”
The same goes for the country’s puritanical parading. Lindo’s mentor advises her to declare before the immigration authorities that she comes to “study religion” for “God’s sake,” a detail that seems to make fun of American religiosity and slightly xenophobic suspicions at once. Along with the absence of any “lasting shame”—tenants sue landlords, meritocracy uplifts the underprivileged, Catholic churches provide—America’s customs and values seem so different from the ones she had known. Lindo’s satire memorably distills the immigrant experience by capturing the surprises, promises, and flaws of her new home.
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