Mark Twain The Original Satirist

Taryn Braz

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What is Satire?•Satire is “a manner or spirit employing

any number of literary and rhetorical devices that expose human or institutional vices and in which a corrective is either implied or directly proposed.” (Benét 868).

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Modern Day Use

•“The literary art of diminishing or derogating a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn, or indignation.” (Abrams 166).

Formal Satire

•Formal satire “is when the voice of satire speaks in the first person, either directly talking to the listener or reader, or when the voice is inside of the book or writing”. (Abrams 166-167).

Indirect Satire

•Indirect Satire is when “the objects of the satire are characters who make themselves and their opinions ridiculous by what they think, say, and do.” (Abrams 167).

Mark Twain

•Ernest Hemingway has said that all modern books and poems can be traced back to Mark Twain.

•Always looking for silliness, foolishness, and hypocrites. (Blount Jr)

Success

•Mark Twain’s first humorous story was the Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

•Works of his have lasted.

•One article was republished in 2000 (Blount Jr)

Death of Susy

•Beloved daughter of Mark Twain

•Her death really hit him hard

•Work became more depressing (Blount Jr)

Change in Humor

•After his daughter died, he became less and less humorous

•Had a cold view towards people

•Critics thought he was better when he wrote with humor (Blount Jr)

Example of Humor• "All of the territorial possessions of all the political

establishments in the Earth- including America- consist of pilferings from other peoples wash. No tribe, however insignificant, and no nation, howsoever mighty, occupies a foot of land that was not stolen. When the English, the French, and the Spaniards reached america, the Indian tribes had been raiding each other's territorial clothes lines for ages, and every acre of ground in the continent had been stolen and restolen 500 times." (Blount Jr)

•

Modern Day Satire•The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, The Onion, Saturday Night Live

•Mixes of both formal and indirect satire

Examples

•http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/video/Stephen-Colbert-Sings-Friday-with-The-Roots-4111/1317553

Pictures

• http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/images/lmphoto_activity1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/activities.html&usg=__mDFMoZyCABlFoyx_57GexeYIlTA=&h=327&w=238&sz=13&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=Nrfuam8Efn7IpM:&tbnh=140&tbnw=107&ei=qU2eTc_IO4fHgAfNp9TkDw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmark%2Btwain%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1034%26bih%3D621%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=135&vpy=108&dur=329&hovh=150&hovw=109&tx=98&ty=100&oei=n02eTdrdJNGitgf9_dmQAw&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0

• http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.clipartguide.com/_named_clipart_images/0511-0702-2316-5906_Man_Laughing_Har!_Har!_Har!_clipart_image.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.clipartguide.com/_pages/0511-0702-2316-5906.html&usg=__j3hTD6bDJCj1VtNdbaI1IGD0BXk=&h=300&w=248&sz=13&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=24fsLzDfj5GJ5M:&tbnh=149&tbnw=123&ei=ClSeTba6LdCltwe2v-CdAw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcartoon%2Bpeople%2Blaughing%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26gbv%3D2%26biw%3D1034%26bih%3D621%26tbm%3Disch0%2C13&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=805&vpy=72&dur=328&hovh=223&hovw=184&tx=148&ty=155&oei=ClSeTba6LdCltwe2v-CdAw&page=1&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0&biw=1034&bih=621

• http://dailypostal.com/2010/03/04/snl-presidents-reunion-video/

Bibliography

• Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 5th ed. New York: Holt, Rinehold, Winston, 1988.

• Benet, William Rose. Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia. 3rd ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.

• Blount, Roy. "Mark Twain: Our Original Superstar." Time.com. New York Times, 3 July 2008. Web. <www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1820166,00.html>.

• Fallon, J. “Stephen Colbert Sings ‘Friday’ With the Roots” Online Posting. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. 1 April

2011.