The Central Idea of Satire Developed by Winterson

Society has a lot of impact on the way people are brought up. One major impact is that society put expectations on people and if they don't meet the expectations, they're considered an outsider. In the chapter "Picka Pocketoni", American tourists are stereotyped as arrogant, ignorant, and unconcerned with other cultures. These adjectives describes them because they think they are more "intellectual" and that the place they came from is more civilized than other places. While, in "Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit", Oranges symbolizes freedom to become who you want to be and that there is no such thing as being normal. For this reason, this two magnificent authors, Winterson and Sedaris, developed the central idea of satire to convey similar tone through the use of sarcasm, exaggeration, and hyperbole.

Firstly, Sedaris created a sarcastic tone to make the audience laugh at his appearance and the way Martin and his wife viewed him. In the text, on page 221, the author says, "An experienced traveler could have told by looking at my shoes that I wasn't French. And even if I were French, it's not as if English is some mysterious tribal dialect spoken only by anthropologists and small population of cannibals". In other words, the author is being sarcastic by saying that he's not French because of his appearance.

The tourists were unconcerned about Sedaris being classified as pure French because they thought they were better than him and stereotyped that everyone that stinks is French and speaks no English whatsoever. When the couple insulted Sedaris in English, they were unaware that he understood English. The audience finds humor in this because the couple had forgotten that English is taught ubiquitously and that Martin really wasn't an expert like he said because if he was, he would have noticed that Sedaris was not who he thought he was.

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In addition, Winterson used exaggeration to create a tone of satire. The church members exaggerated that Jeanette's spirit was with God because Jeanette was in a moment of rapture. The author states on page 21 that, "Word spread about our church that I was in a state of Rapture". This shows that the whole church was zealous to believe that Jeanette being deaf means she was in a state of rapture.

Therefore, for one person, Miss Jewsbury, to figured out that Jeanette was deaf and that her spirit wasn't with God, it creates a sense of humor in the audience because the whole church exaggerated that God was doing miraculous things and they already knew that she was deaf and not in a state of Rapture. Some members of the congregation and Jeanette's mom felt humiliated because they were so zealous to the point that an outsider contradicted their biblical beliefs by divulging that Jeanette wasn't full of the spirit.

Lastly, both Winterson and Sedaris used hyperbole to convey a tone of satire. In "Picka Pocketoni”, American tourists were loud on the train. The author says on page 219 that, "We are loud people. The trumpeting elephants of the human race". This shows hyperbole and shouldn't be taken literally because the author wasn't saying that human beings are elephants or trumpets. Therefore, he is only comparing their loudness to elephant's voice and trumpet's sound.

In "Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit", the neighbors next door were fornicating. The author says on page 54 that, "On a sunday". Since sunday is considered an holy day, Mrs. White see it as a sin to be fornicating on a sunday. For Mrs. White to say "On a sunday” it represents hyperbole because she made an exaggerated statements or claims that is not meant to be taken literally. The audience finds humor in this because the author portrays Americans to be loud people and hearing the neighbors fornicating makes the audience laugh because there is really nothing special about sunday. It's just like every other regular days.

In conclusion, Winterson and Sedaris developed the idea of satire to convey similar tone through the use of hyperbole because they wanted the audience to see how people over exaggerate things that shouldn't be taking to the extreme level. In "Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit", the way Jeanette was brought up in a zealous, christian home had a big impact on her as she started to grow up and realized who she really was. She was transformed from being a holy person, who wanted to be a missionary, to a sinner, as the church would characterize her.

Her passion to become a missionary was later diverted since her religious beliefs and faith were interfering each other. In the chapter "Picka Pocketoni", even though Sedaris was also an American, Martin overlooked the fact that they were both American and puts a bad reputation on the Americans. He insulted Sedaris and stereotyped against French people. This makes French people in Paris to view Sedaris and other American as arrogant, ignorant, and unconcerned with other cultures. From all of this details, the audience finds it humorous to laugh.

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