{"id":74,"date":"2017-09-04T06:17:02","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T06:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/?page_id=74"},"modified":"2017-09-19T15:15:13","modified_gmt":"2017-09-19T15:15:13","slug":"characteristics-of-modes-of-writing","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/characteristics-of-modes-of-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Characteristics of Modes of Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Characteristics of Modes of Writing<\/h1>\n

Objective<\/h4>\n

This section will address the characteristics of the following modes of writing: satire, parody, allegory, pastoral, narrative, comedy, tragedy, farce, and various poetic forms, such as ballads, sonnets, lyrics, epics, and odes.<\/p>\n

Art Forms\u2014Satire and Parody<\/h4>\n

Satire <\/strong><\/abbr>is a literary method that mixes a critical attitude with humor, wit, or ridicule for the purpose of correcting human behavior or improving a situation. It differs from comedy in that the sole purpose of comedy is to make people laugh.<\/p>\n

Satire existed during ancient Greece and has been used by writers ever since. During the eighteenth century, authors such as Alexander Pope, Henry Fielding, and John Dryden included satire regularly in their writings. Used in virtually every genre, satire is still found today in movies, advertising, and political cartoons.<\/p>\n

Parody<\/strong><\/abbr> is a mode of writing that shares characteristics with satire. A writer of parody imitates and makes fun of another, usually more serious, piece of work. Parody can have two purposes: comedy and criticism.<\/p>\n

When a parody is intended for comic relief, the artist will exaggerate or distort the work\u2019s content and style. Cervantes\u2019 Don Quixote parodies the chivalric romances that were popular during the 1600s.<\/p>\n

When parody is used as criticism, the author mimics the work being parodied and borrows words and phrases from it. This type of parody may still be humorous, but it has an underlying element of criticism. The success of this type of parody relies on a literate audience familiar with the original work and appreciative of the comical commentary.<\/p>\n

An allegory <\/strong><\/abbr>is a story in which the characters, objects, and actions have another meaning. Both poets and prose writers use allegories to explain beliefs about good and evil or to address moral or religious principles. Another characteristic of an allegory is that the characters actually become what they stand for.<\/p>\n

John Bunyan\u2019s Pilgrim\u2019s Progress, written during the seventeenth century, is a classic allegory about Christian salvation. The main character, Christian, is warned by Evangelist to leave the City of Destruction and head for the Celestial City. On the way, Christian meets characters named Faithful, Hopeful, Mr. Worldly Wiseman, and Mr. Cruelty. Bunyan\u2019s book, which is written in the form of a dream, is strictly allegorical, but other works may have allegorical tendencies.<\/p>\n

The following works are either written entirely as allegories or have episodic allegories.<\/p>\n