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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 25: Oil
Explanation and Analysis—Good Wrecks:
Often, Proulx uses the running of Gammy Bird to comment on sensational journalism in a way that invokes satire. The topics that are most popular (and thus most exciting to the staff) are also the most disturbing and/or violent. This creates an almost uncomfortable level of excitement at events like car accidents and sexual abuse scandals.
This is exemplified in Chapter 25 when Tert Card communicates Jack Buggit's new idea to Quoyle:
But he's got an idea on the car wreck feature. You know there are weeks when we don't have any good wrecks and have to go into the files. [...] Quoyle, he wants you to write up boat wrecks and get some photos, same as you do the car wrecks. There's enough so we'll always have a fresh disaster.
The idea that some car wrecks are "good wrecks" because they make for good newspaper articles shows, in a darkly comic way, the exploitative nature of journalism. Furthermore, describing a disaster as "fresh" as if it were a tasty piece of bread or cup of coffee indicates how these events have become commodified. Unfortunately, the journalism industry must keep itself afloat by pumping out the graphic stories that will grab readers' attention.
