Status Anxiety By Alain De Botton Rhetorical Analysis

In Alain de Botton’s 2004 book, Status Anxiety, he claimed that the chief aim of humorists is not to just entertain, but also to “convey impunity messages that might be dangerous or impossible to state directly.” This statement is true because comedians, cartoonists, and other humarists can change the world with messages that they portray through their works. By using their different techniques, humorists can effectively get a message out to the public that would typically get a person in trouble. Such an example of this would be political cartoonists who, through their works, can show representations of political corruption throughout the government without being target by the mentioned politicians. Political cartoonists have always delivered their messages to the public despite the dangers they may face for it, such as the political cartoonists
Often times they write to entertain their audience, yet they may also write to get important messages across to their audience that may have to do with politics or world affairs. An example of this is Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” from the year 1729. In his satirical work, Swift claims that the impoverned people of Ireland should sell their children to be slaughtered for meat. It would fix both the economic problems and the famine that the country had been facing. His purpose for the essay, quite obviously, was not to actually convince his audience to sell their children. He wanted to send a message to Great Britain that they needed to begin paying attention to Ireland and assist the country in their time of need. This was a situation that he faced with humor, and his humor brought attention to the dire needs of his country. This was another example of how humorists can convey impunity messages to the public. He likely would not have garnered as much attention had he written a normal essay about the issue of his