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Onion: Girl Moved to Tears by “Of Mice and Men” Cliff Notes

Prompt

Read the following article from The Onion, and write a paragraph (1/2 page) response where you respond to the following questions:

  1. As a student, do you find this piece hilarious? Sort of funny? Or does it verge on disrespectful?
  2. What is the purpose of the satirical piece? To what extent does the author achieve its purpose? Does it appeal or invoke a specific emotional response? If so, how?

Be sure to use evidence, examples, or ideas from the text to support your response.

Response

  1. As a student who may or may not have used Cliff Notes or SparkNotes, it’s hilarious to read this - in a good way. This is because using services like Cliff Notes, SparkNotes, etc. is such a big loophole when it comes to having to “actually” read books, that it becomes kind of funny. However, I could see how people find it disrespectful, especially to the authors of the actual book, but I think it’s safe to assume that it was not the authors original intent. Plus, The Onion has a reputation for publishing very satirical pieces.
  2. On the surface, this article is supposed to appeal to our humor, but it does highlight issues in English classes - specifically the use of Cliff Notes, SparkNotes, or other similar services to get around “actually” needing to read the book. The fact that you can literally get really good summaries of books/chapters does remove the value from English classes. I think the author really highlights this at the end, when they conclude by quoting Weaver, “I loved this book so much, I’m going to read of Steinbeck’s Cliff Notes… But first I’m going to the library to checkout the original version of Of Mice And Men starring John Malkovich and Gary Sinise.” It’s close enough to say that most people would get that she was referencing the movie, rather than the actual original book. This paints Weaver rather as a stupid person…? but that’s another reason why we find stuff funny - because it’s stupid. It becomes very clear that the author utilizes humors to present the idea, but lets us process and sit on the information ourselves, without explicitly telling us how to think, etc. In my opinion, this is another very effective use of rhetoric.