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Essay on Analysis of Joy Williams' Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp

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Analysis of Joy Williams' Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp

Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp is an essay written by Joy Williams, about the overwhelming complacency that todays culture shows towards nature.Williams argues in a very satirical way, that todays culture has all but completely lost touch with what nature really is, and that unless we as a nation change our morals regarding the role that nature plays in human existence, we may very well be witnessing the dawn of our own destruction.

An Evaluation of: Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp

Williams is very satirical in the presentation of her topic, and the way that she addresses the reader from the very first paragraph is very interesting inasmuch as she is almost …show more content…

Although many would agree that Williams has a very good point, her writing style belies conflict even in her own views. For instance, she attempts to use her satire as a way of shocking the reader into feeling her personal pain regarding the issue. However, if she truly felt as strongly as she would lead one to believe, then it stands to reason that she would much rather have written an essay which touched personal points in the lives of those who are percived to be the overindulgent, complacent, and disrespectful citizens of our decadent culture. In this way she may have accomplished what she set out to do in the beginning with this essay, which was to convince the target culture they need to change their ways before it?s too late.

The overwhelming feeling througout the entire essay is that, ?This lady is on a rant?, and it is apparent in the closing paragraphs of the essay that this was her intention, but the essay ends there, and seems to come up short of a punchline. While most self-proclaimed environmentalists would say that Williams did a wonderful job jabbing our glutenous culture where it hurts, those of a more dedicated banter would wonder just how much of a bite does this author take during her turn at the plate. It would seem that she places herself outside of this realm of over-utilization to the point where one can only imagine her standing in a loin cloth eating bannanas all day. Take her affront on the

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