Dave Barry Biistrophobia Summary

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In "Bistrophobia" a satirical piece by Dave Barry about the terrible quality of airline food versus how they market it to the public. He strengthens his argument by using imagery, irony, and hyperbole.

Barry begins his essay by using imagery to show what he envisions when he hears 'bistro' explaining that "I believe the French sit around their restaurants pretending to eat out of empty snail shells and making French sounds of enjoyment such as "Yumme!". In the image he creates, he exaggerates by using stereotypes such as the French pretending to eat escargot, which is a delicacy that Barry believes the French "don't actually eat". Barry begins to establish in the reader that bistros are 'fake', as the French call their snails a delicacy which they themselves would not eat, and neither would the marketers who gave the inedible airline food the title of bistro. …show more content…

He tells the reader a story, saying "Here are the items it contained: [...] (3) the greenest, coldest, hardest banana I have ever touched in my life. If I'd had a mallet, I could have pounded it straight into a vampire's heart." As a vampire can only be killed with a stake, this is an extreme exaggeration. He says that even immortal vampires could be stabbed by this banana, which the reader knows is not true. Furthermore, Barry explains, "[...] we dropped to our knees and gratefully licked crumbs off the terminal floor." Dave Barry argues that since the food was 'inedible', the people would rather lick crumbs off the floor. It shows that even though the flight passengers had access to food on the plane, it was so terrible that they had waited to lick minuscule crumbs off an extremely dirty

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