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The primary comedic device that O'Donnel uses in this piece is the casual, friendly tone, juxtapossed with the ridiculous things the man is saying. He opens the piece as if it were any normal, polite letter from a potential employee after an interview. He mentions the whole biting ordeal second. Also, he increases the ridiculousness by showing that he did not simply bite his potential boss in a fit of misguided absentmindedness, but instead bit him many, many times, along with other members of the office. All of this is discussed by the letter's author in a friendly, slightly apologetic tone. The dichotomy between what he is saying and how he says it is very funny.
O'Donnel also uses unexpected punchlines for comedic effect. For instance, the man tries to explain that the reason he bit the boss was that his fingers looked like sausages, which is ironic considering his brief case was full of left over sausages, explaining why his resume was so greasy. Or his explanation for his biting habbits being that it started in childhood when he would bite people for no reason, and continued to do so for many years. These are answers that the reader does not expect and do not follow logically, which creates humor.
The tone and stylistic choices of O'Donnel are the reason for this piece's humor, and full disclosure, it might be the funniest close reading ive put up so far.
I feel that your essay consists primarily of a summary of the article. In order to write an AP style essay, you need to include an introduction with a clear thesis stating your position on the purpose and meaning of the article. Your essay does not contain any scholarly analysis and fails to acknowledge why exactly the man was biting with relation to a deeper meaning. Other than for comedic effect, is there another motive of the author in writing this piece? Being a closed reading response, you may also want to incorporate specific quotations to support your argument with several pieces of evidence. The article that you selected is worthy of greater analysis and I feel that you can accomplish that goal with some consideration to the superficiality and the deeper meaning of the work.
ReplyDeleteGood response! I would try to add some more analysis as to what the author is trying to say other than just invoke laughter. Also, you could add an introduction and conclusion! This would add some nice structure and make your writing flow better. You give a lot of specific examples which prove your point well. Your voice comes through a lot as well, which makes your writing really fun to read (it seems the same as when you are just talking in class and isn't overly formal or pretentious). Nice work, Nico!
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