Road Warrior
Morons in Miami (and Other Cities and Countries, but Mostly Miami):
Analysis of Dave Barry’s “Road Warrior”
While driving on any road in America, and perhaps any other road on earth, motorists are not calm, not cool, not collected. They disobey the rules of the road by driving slowly in the left-hand lane; they disobey the rules of the road by trailing in extremely close vicinity behind the drivers ahead of them (so close that their front bumper occasionally collides with the alleged normal driver’s rear). Oblivious “MORONS” (76) would be a well-deserved name for these people according to Dave Barry and the “opinion-makers in the news media” (75). In the essay “Road Warrior,” Barry intertwines the use of a humorous and sarcastic tone as well as exaggeration to construct his argument that rage is an unnecessary, yet common, issue on the roads (in Miami) and beyond.
Barry’s comical and satirical tone indicates the absurdity of the anger and hostility felt while traveling the highways. Beginning with a completely bizarre statement, Dave Barry writes: “If you do much driving on our nation’s highways, you’ve probably noticed that, more and more often, bullets are coming through your windshield” (75). Unless on an on an episode of Cops, Barry’s statement is truly fabricated. He explains that this effect of Road Rage is caused mainly by “the realization that many…motorists have the same brain structure as a cashew” (76). Seeming irrational, Barry reveals that even the National Institute of Traffic Safety believes that most motorists are MORONS. To continue his sardonic attitude, Dave Barry declares that these MORONS “drive in the left-hand…lane, even though they are going slower than everybody else” (76). In Barry’s mind, there is a possibility that “[these moronic drivers] belong to some kind of religious cult that believes the right lane is sacred and must never come in direct contact with tires,” or there is another possibility that at one point, while driving in
Analysis of Dave Barry’s “Road Warrior”
While driving on any road in America, and perhaps any other road on earth, motorists are not calm, not cool, not collected. They disobey the rules of the road by driving slowly in the left-hand lane; they disobey the rules of the road by trailing in extremely close vicinity behind the drivers ahead of them (so close that their front bumper occasionally collides with the alleged normal driver’s rear). Oblivious “MORONS” (76) would be a well-deserved name for these people according to Dave Barry and the “opinion-makers in the news media” (75). In the essay “Road Warrior,” Barry intertwines the use of a humorous and sarcastic tone as well as exaggeration to construct his argument that rage is an unnecessary, yet common, issue on the roads (in Miami) and beyond.
Barry’s comical and satirical tone indicates the absurdity of the anger and hostility felt while traveling the highways. Beginning with a completely bizarre statement, Dave Barry writes: “If you do much driving on our nation’s highways, you’ve probably noticed that, more and more often, bullets are coming through your windshield” (75). Unless on an on an episode of Cops, Barry’s statement is truly fabricated. He explains that this effect of Road Rage is caused mainly by “the realization that many…motorists have the same brain structure as a cashew” (76). Seeming irrational, Barry reveals that even the National Institute of Traffic Safety believes that most motorists are MORONS. To continue his sardonic attitude, Dave Barry declares that these MORONS “drive in the left-hand…lane, even though they are going slower than everybody else” (76). In Barry’s mind, there is a possibility that “[these moronic drivers] belong to some kind of religious cult that believes the right lane is sacred and must never come in direct contact with tires,” or there is another possibility that at one point, while driving in