Effective Satire in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

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Effective Satire in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

Satire is a technique used in literature to criticize the faults of society. An excellent examle of contemporary satire is Kurt Vonnegut's novel God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. The author tells the life of Eliot Rosewater, a young and affluent man troubled by the plights of the poor. Eliot is the President of the Rosewater Foundation, a sum of money worth approximately $87 million. Using this position, he does everything he can to help the poor. This charity giving is socially unacceptable to the wealthy, particularly Eliot's father Senator Lister Ames Rosewater. Vonnegut uses caricature, irony, and tone to satirize the lack of care the rich have for those socially "beneath them."

Vonnegut satirized the rich by exaggerating prominent features to portraying Senator Rosewater as a snob. He is characterized as heartless, shallow, and mean; seems to care only about his family name and public image. Senator Rosewater has no pity for the poor in his heart, "I have spent my life demanding that people blame themselves for their misfortunes." (62) The most evident flaw of Eliot's father is how he worries what people will think of him. When Eliot first opens the Rosewater Foundation and gives out money to those in need, Senator leaves him alone - to do as he chooses. However, when the young and unlearned lawyer Norman Mushari begins trying to prove Eliot insane and to shift the money to Fred Rosewater, a distant relative in Rhode Island, Senator crusades to prove the opposite. Everyone is asked, even Eliot's ex-wife Sylvia DuVrais Zetterling, for proof. Senator Lister Rosewater simply brushes aside Sylvia's pain to question her. "'What did he seem like there in Paris?' the Senator wanted to know. 'Did he seem sane enough to you then?'" (64) Senator goes to the small town of Rosewater, Indiana, where Eliot is living and meets with him. Worried by what he sees, Senator plots with attorney Thurmond McAllister to make the jury believe Eliot is fit and able. Senator only cares about Eliot when the family name is endangered. Another hideous aspect of the Senator's personality is his cruelty towards his son. He disapproves of

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