Preview

My Response To Montaigne's Irony 'Of Cannibals'

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
293 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
My Response To Montaigne's Irony 'Of Cannibals'
Kussy Mafadee
Foundation 2
Assignment 1

My response to Montaigne’s piece, which I find the irony of his philosophy very intense. He has an inexhaustible curiosity for knowledge of human, society, nature, and literature. However, Montaigne used criticizing in the ideas of his time in a way that mixes humor with serious.
In which he ended his essay, “Of Cannibals” sarcastically by saying “All this does not sound very ill, and the last was not at all amiss, for they wear no breeches.” He found in "primitive" societies to be respected. Montaigne recounts what this traveler has told him to conclude that those whom people call cannibals are actually more interested in nature and more compassionate to one another, and more adamant in their

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    The adage says that “history repeats itself.” Criticisms of today’s society apply to societies that came centuries before. Satires from the 18th century criticize political events happening in the 20th Century. Many techniques of satire also transcend time. Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” which many accept as the first modern satire, is laden with irony. Irony is “the expression of meaning using language that normally expresses the opposite” (Brown 1417). Although Jonathan Swift and Flannery O’Connor lived and wrote in different time periods, they both criticized their societies using irony.…

    • 1336 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    At first he seems to reject the idea, but he goes in depth with what Esthetes could mean, and seems to convince himself that art can be both immoral and beautiful, something he thought was not possible at the beginning at the essay.…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Edgar Allan Poe uses irony to develop the central idea of revenge. He uses irony in naming the character of Fortunato. Fortunato’s name means “fortune”. He is a man of wealth who is being blindly led to his death by Montresor in search of justifiable revenge. Poe also uses irony in the dialogue, “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking today”. Montresor is pleased to see him. Although Fortunato looks good now, he will be dead by the end of the story when Montresor puts his plan into action. Later, Montresor is concerned about his coughing. Montresor said, “We will go back. Your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved..”. Montresor tells him to go back because…

    • 181 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Montaigne then parallels these thoughts in the essay “On Cannibalism” by juxtaposing violent European traditions with the “savage” cultural practices of non-European people, creating works that are aimed at criticizing a contradictory European view of life and society, rather than total societal reform.…

    • 1475 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Another person that greatly influenced Montaigne is Ovid. When he was seven or eight, Montaigne read Ovid’s Metamorphoses and it changed his life. These stories, similar to our time’s fairy tales, were different than anything he had read in school. In his essays Montaigne talks about how Ovid was the first author that caught his interest compared to the books that all the other kids his age were reading. Montaigne enjoyed Ovid’s writing so much that he decided to use his style of “slipping from one topic to the next without introduction or apparent order” (Bakewell 66). Montaigne likes to skip around a lot in his essays and quite often strays off topic. For example, he starts a lot of his essays with a different topic than what the title of the essay says it…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Montaigne and Augustine

    • 1372 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In regards to Montaigne 's statement on page 23 in Apology for Raymond Sebond, I would deduce that he was using the metaphor of nature and natural tendencies in opposition to man 's vain, self-seeking façade that displaces God the creator. Montaigne 's statement appears to (on the surface at least) value mans naturalistic tendencies and graces in a much better light than our own vain-striving presumptions that claim that our "competent utterances" hold the very answers to the "right" way in which to conduct oneself. Montaigne constantly uses the contrast of animals and humans with the former representing a more pure, natural existence that I assume is to be more highly regarded because of it 's proximity to the "original" way in which we were created by God. I think that Montaigne held in contempt his contemporaries and particular predecessors who he felt held themselves up above others and flaunted their intelligence and self-importance for all others to see.…

    • 1372 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Mark Twain 's Huckleberry Finn, the concepts of prayer, religion, and spirituality are introduced early on in the novel, and their influence on Huck 's character and their role in the overall story is evident regardless of the theory of criticism that is employed for interpretation. A New Critic scours the text for conflicts, symbols, and resolutions while examining word choice in an effort to determine the literal meaning (Bressler 45-48). A Reader-Response Critic, particularly a subjective critic who advocates the reader 's worldview over the text, reads the text and then relies on her own past experiences to give it meaning (Bressler 67). When these practices are employed, the Reader-Response Critic and the New Critic find that prayer and religion are essential components in the development of Huck 's character as well as the perception of it.…

    • 1627 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cannibalism In The Crucible

    • 2950 Words
    • 12 Pages

    In the early morning hours of March 24th 1692; long before the tales of the Brothers Grimm, stood 71 year old Rebecca Nurse. A simple woman from Salem Massachusetts who was accused of witchcraft by the prominent wife of a local official, Ann Putnam While she pleaded her innocence, the courtroom was apparently under her spell, and with every motion of her body the audience rolled on the floor in pain. While in today?s society we would rule this type of behavior ?mass hysteria? or ?mob mentality?, at the time these were tales of evil documented to warn us of the horrors of witchcraft. (Brandt 34-35). On July 19th she was executed with four other women as part of the long running Salem Witch trials. These heinous events sparked the fear society…

    • 2950 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Tartuffe

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Moliere’s Tartuffe is from 17th century France, during the Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason. The type of Enlightenment in the western culture differed from the Eastern Asian philosophies. Enlightenment thinkers put faith in reason and analysis in the Western culture. Tartuffe was born to a culture that valued the age of rationalism, or practical thinking, which had gradually departed from religious beginnings. Furthermore, people in Paris were interested in Enlightenment values such as rationality, moderation, and order. In addition, good manners and gender roles were strictly enforced during this time period. Moliere demonstrates all of these Enlightenment values in his play.…

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Bring Back Flogging

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages

    This essay by Jeff Jacoby illustrates an authors use of ironic sarcasm otherwise known as satire to defend and illustrate his platform on his position. Jacoby uses in this essay verbal irony (persuasion in the form of ridicule). In the irony of this sort there is a contrast between what is said and what is meant.…

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    One would think that these conditions should be sane, if the man should have been under a locked hatch at all. However, the cannibals, ever interested in their own well being at the expense of others, have no problem with with this madness continuing forward as longer as it ensures their continued survival as the master class.…

    • 2253 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Convocation Address

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages

    He concludes his address with this realization: "Our whole fragile tradition of art and thought is neither an amusement nor a yoke. For those who steep themselves in it, it provides both a guide and a goal for surpassing all the half-baked ideologies that have blown up at our feet in this century like landmines . . . All we have to guide us in this present is the accumulated thought and experience of those who have lived before us."…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Satire Letter

    • 848 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Allow me to recall your high school history lessons, more specifically about Europe. Ireland during the 1700’s was heavily repressed by England via trade restrictions and limited parliamentary power in Dublin. Like a small shrub that struggles to subsist under the looming shadow of a mighty forest tree, Ireland was not faring well. Jonathan Swift, a very well- educated man and a stalwart Irish patriot, wrote his controversial piece, “A Modest Proposal,” in order to call attention to the horrid conditions that people were subjected to under English rule. I completely understand your stance on the piece; cannibalism is the quintessence of disgust and cruelty. Suffer me once more to recall another thing you must have learned in high school, particularly your studies in the English language. Upon closer inspection by scholars over a great many years, the truth about “A Modest Proposal” has been revealed. It is satire, or a piece that points out flaws in society by poking fun at problems. The reason behind his piece was simply to spur the reader to action. Although each statistic in “A Modest Proposal” is very accurate sounding and methodical and nearly sensible, there are reasons within the piece to reach the former conclusion of satire. One such reason is quite obvious: there is no proof…

    • 848 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Jonathan Swift created one of the most renowned satirical writings with his essay A Modest Proposal. Cannibalism was the central issue of the writing more precise a cannibalistic economy was the proposal by Swift to alleviate the poverty of Ireland. The selling and consuming of yearlings was the proposal by Swift due to cannibalism in Ireland being a view that the British held possible. According to Frank Lestringant the British held views that the Irish could possibly be cannibals among other views the British held against the Irish,…

    • 1541 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Vegetarian Irony

    • 106 Words
    • 1 Page

    At the pound is where I had my dreams royally crushed by my sister. I had told my sister I wanted to work in animal care, basically be a veterinarian. She told me that I would have to be a vegetarian if I wanted to be a veterinarian. I was crushed I knew I was too much of a carnivore to ever give up meat therefore I could never be a veterinarian. I left the pound in dismay until a few years later I learned this to be untrue. I was so happy, the irony is that a few years later I became a vegetarian…

    • 106 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays