<p> Satire Unit</p><p>Corn-Pone Opinions by Mark Twain</p><p> Corn pone humor: folksy and homespun in manner of speech; “down home” “countrified” </p><p> Short sentences/ fragments</p><p> What is the subject of Twain’s satire? </p><p> o Society in general/ Americans </p><p> o Desire/ need to conform </p><p> What is Twain’s thesis? </p><p> o Human instinct to conform</p><p> o Independent thought is very rare. </p><p> Rhetorical questions</p><p> Induction/ Deduction format </p><p> o Opening anecdote as inductive reasoning</p><p> o Inductive leap/ thesis </p><p> o Deductive argument- examples, elements that Twain satirizes to support his thesis</p><p>. Clothing- hoopskirt </p><p>. England- wine glasses </p><p>. Literature- Shakespeare . Religion, politics (page 719 bottom)- Shifts to heavier/ harsher satire due to subject matter </p><p> o Twain’s growing intensity of satire: Page 720 – more invective, fervent, insulting, accusatory in nature</p><p> Deductive conclusion: We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking. And out of it we get an aggregation which we consider a boon. Its name is Public Opinion. It is held in reverence. It settles everything. Some think it the Voice of God. </p><p>Key Questions:</p><p> Effect of pronoun changes- Changing from I to We. </p><p> Effect of parallelism in the two long sentences of paragraph 14. </p><p> Effect of capitalization at end – Public Opinion and Voice of God. </p><p> Examples of understatement and hyperbole (satirical techniques) </p>