Irony In Mr. King's Insane

Throughout the novel, the author, Barbara Kingsolver, uses various stylistic devices to create complex, symbolic, and significant literature that is also rich in meaning. In the assigned passage, Kingsolver incorporates several literary devices to capture the audience’s attention and leave them with something to think about post reading.

One metaphor used by King was “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny”(564). King also used a simile in his letter, “Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all is ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, in justice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion, before it can be cured.” (569-570). These uses of figurative language were just two of many found in King’s letter. By using these language tools King creates an eloquent writing style which is deep, sophisticated and poetic. Using this eloquent style, not only makes his writing polished but it supports his creditability. Eloquent writing supports creditability because it proves King’s wit and writing skills, which proves that he is well

In paragraph 25, King uses multiple rhetorical questions such as: “Isn’t this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery?” Rhetorical questions solidify the argument, questioning the reader into rethinking the thoughts one may held accountable for being true before. King uses rhetorical questions to the extent of proving himself to be logical in his actions, proving

In literature, many authors love for throw an unexpected twist as the end. Shirley Jackson is no exception. In the short stories “The Lottery” and “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson both take twist that the reader doesn’t expect. In “The Lottery” a small town gathers to draw a winner; however Tessie Hutchinson is not delighted to be the winner. Also in “The Possibility of Evil” another small town has an unexpected villain who resides on Pleasant St. Shirley Jackson uses literary devices to depict twist at the end of her short stories because she used literary devices such as syntax, irony and mood.

William Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men is novel that explores the political society and its influences. Like several politicians in modern society, several characters have qualities that seem unsuitable to the impression that have made. These ironies in All the King’s Men reveal how the characters have flaws, which can result in critical consequences. Jack Burden, Adam Stanton, Judge Irwin and Willie Stark are characters that with ironic traits.

King incorporates a myriad of stylistic devices that shape and develop the theme of the passage in the book. Through the periodic use of rhetorical questions such as,

“One critic has suggested that if pro football has become the voyeur’s version of combat, then the horror film has become the modern version of public lynching.” (paragraph 6) This is a prime example of one of the many argumentative strategies in the essay. Not only does the said quote prove that King’s opinion is shared by others but also that it appeals to authority. By including an experts shared opinion on the matter, King’s argument becomes much more compelling. “To show that we can, to show that we are not afraid, that we can ride this roller coaster” (paragraph 3) is an extremely effective metaphor king uses to help better describe why we go to see movies in the first place. We’ve all been on a roller coaster before so we can easily relate to what the author is explaining to us. King also uses a personal anecdote as an example of feeding our dark side what it wants; “For myself, I

Identify the reasons King advances for our interest in and fascination with horror films. Which do you find the most unsettling? Which the most convincing? Why?

In Stephen King’s somewhat subjective essay in the 1984 Playboy magazine, Why We Crave Horror Movies, King describes his reasoning behind why so many people are fond of watching movies residing in the horror genre. The content of his essay, though inserted in an unconventional area for

When we compare ourselves to the narrator and the events of Stephen King’s short story “Strawberry Spring,” we “re-establish our feelings of essential normality” (King, “Why We Crave” 1). The horror we see in the narrator helps us, as readers, to feel normal in comparison. The influence of horror on our lives is actually much greater than one might think, it helps us feel normal. The true horror that readers are revealed to, is when they begin to feel empathetic for the narrator and his paranoia about Springheel Jack and then we are blindsided at the end when he says “I’ve been thinking about the trunk of my car--such an ugly word trunk--and wondering why in the world I should be afraid to open it.

He uses words like you and your. If King is addressing the reader directly then he better be right about what he says about them. He says “If your insanity leads you to carve up women like Jack the Ripper or the Cleveland Torso Murderer, we clap you away in the funny farm.” How is it that King can call the reader insane if he does not know the reader, he cannot? King should not address the reader if he is not correct about the reader. King says that everyone is a little insane, but he cannot compare the little insanity in everyone to cutting people open in the

Furthermore, Krakauer, in the structuring of his book, presents the reader with great amounts of irony, both dramatic and situational. Fairly early in the story, we know that Chris is dead, and Krakauer uses this to an ironical advantage. By already knowing his fate and his background, the reader is able to see the irony is Chris’ death. By dying in a bus in tandem with dying only a couple of hours from civilization, Chris was not truly in the wild. Once again, Krakauer makes the reader sympathize with Chris, for he died not able to fulfill his dream and escape from society. Like in the bus, he was trapped within society, unable to escape no matter how hard he tried. His use of periodic sentences solidifies this idea. Specifically, when Krakauer travels with Chris’ parents to the place of their son’s death.

Lastly, King appeals to character as well as establishing his creditability. For starters, the the vocabulary King chose to use shows that he is educated and possesses the knowledge to respond to the clergymen. King also informed the clergymen that he had previous experience in conducting and participating in non-violent campaigns. This provides credibility because it showed that he had prior knowledge of the behavior and purpose of those participating, while also addressing that past campaigns have always been “untimely”, but with desired outcome. The last and most obvious proof of credibility, is that King was a black man that faced the same adversities that he referred to in the last paragraph of this section. The example being of having to personally tell his daughter why she could not be allowed to go to a public amusement park because she was black and looked at as less than.

King is a credible author and has many written novels yet he also has fallacies. We might just be going to watch a horror movie for the thrill but King has his own opinion on horror movies. King mentions our desire for horror movies and how it affects us emotionally, and mentally. King says, “I think that we’re all mentally ill” (345). This assumption is made to the whole world which is clearly not true. His generalization of all of us being mentally ill is an example of hasty generalization. Although this novel does have some humor and some support to evidence it has little to no effect on his faults and weaknesses. King doesn’t think about everyone but his own opinion being made. The biggest flaw that King makes is that his audience is intended only for those who watch horror movies and has no means for those who don’t. King is a credible author who has written other novels that pertain the idea of violence or horror so he knows what he is doing. The only problem that he has in his critical essay is that he doesn’t involve or think about others. In a way, King also uses the logical fallacy ad populum because of the way he talks about people. Restating the quote, “I think we’re all mentally ill” is an example of ad populum as well. Most of Kings comments are towards the readers who have been to the theater or have watched a movie at home. King makes negative remarks to people who watch horror movies. I find this very curious of the author to speak to the public in that manner to avoid the

In Stephen King's "Why we Crave Horror", the famous novelist argues for a rather depressing explanation of society's fixation with horror movies. He insinuates today's generation's obsession over gory and demonic storylines is a result of our internal need for violence that must be satisfied. Such claims may shock readers at first, however, King's use of diction, imagery and tone leave us no choice but to agree with his analysis of human behaviour. He uses these rhetorical tools to prove to the naive reader that we truly are "mentally ill".