A Modest Proposal / Satire Flashcards
curate
a clergyman appointed to assist a parish priest
desponding
to lose heart or hope; become disheartened; despair
emulation
the effort or desire to equal or surpass another or others
expedient
something suitable or appropriate, esp something used during an urgent situation
encumbrance
something that encumbers; something burdensome, useless, or superfluous; burden; hindrance:
Importuning
to harass with persistent requests; demand of (someone) insistently
parsimony
extreme care or reluctance in spending; frugality; niggardliness
prudence
wise or judicious in practical affairs; sagacious; discreet or circumspect; sober.
raiment
clothing; apparel; attire.
temperance
self control
Mockery
To make fun of something
Ex: “Man is the only animal that blushes—or needs to.” -Mark Twain
Sarcasm
A harsh, personally directed comment; to use praise to mock someone
Ex: “I’m so hungry that I could eat a horse!”
Overstatement
To say more than you mean to say; to exaggerate
Ex: “I’m so hungry that I could eat a horse!”
Understatement
To say less than you mean to say
Ex: “Mount Everest is not small.”
Parody
Mockery of a specific, known person, literary work, movie, event
Ex: General MacArthur said, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.” Parodies: “Old blondes never fade, they just dye away.” “Old soldiers never die, but young ones do.”
Irony
To say one thing, yet to mean another
Ex: In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo tells Mercutio that his wound is slight. Mercutio says, “No, it’s not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but ‘tis enough, ‘twill serve.”
Bathos
To go from the serious to the ridiculous quickly.
Ex: “I love my country, my wife, my job, and chocolate candy.”
Mock-Heroic
Imitates, yet exaggerates and distorts, the literary epic and its style
Ex:“The garbage man, tall and strong, lifted his glittering can of rubbish high, as if it were a feather, and with the strength of Thor, hurled it into the dumpster.”
Logical appeals
supporting a position with evidence such as facts or statistics
Emotional appeals
passages that use words that arouse strong feelings
Ethical appeals
passages that establish the writer as sincere and qualified to make the remarks
