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Satire In Good Bones, By Margaret Atwood

818 Words4 Pages

In Margaret Atwood’s collection, Good Bones, she alludes to real life situations through the use of satire. She shows how war is unethical. In many pieces, such as “Epaulettes” Atwood satirizes the role of men in modern society. Such a critique includes the way men treat the environment, and their leadership when they have power. Atwood believes that men are not great leaders based on their historic performance of destructive causes in the world. In “Epaulettes” Atwood represents men as weak and hypocritical in order to criticize the role of men in power during times of war. In “Epaulettes” males are represented as irrational beings who make decisions based on selfish reasons, as greed and pride for one’s nation. Atwood mentions how war “provided clear winners and... losers” (Atwood, 49). This is a clear example, to show how men with the use of rage and violence take pride in who is considered the best. Atwood reveals the greed of male …show more content…

The absurdity of the comparison is almost humorous. She justifies this absurdity by showing that the goals of war compared to a sport are strikingly similar. They both provide “clear winners and clear losers” (Atwood, 49), “[stimulates] production in selected areas of the economy” (Atwood, 49), and both put the well being of men/people “at risk” (Atwood, 49). “The male birds, in their…bright coloured plumage…perform dances” (Atwood, 49) and “the…female birds choose the winners” (Atwood, 50). Atwood shows how bird display does not nearly compare with war. She explains the farce by using “Birds, … a melodious method of competition” (Atwood, 50) as a suggestion posed by one of the world leaders. From this one can see how Margaret Atwood satirizes the role of men in power through absurdity first by comparing war to sports and second by comparing war to

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