Good Little Boy Satire

Not Such a Good Little Boy “The Story of the Good Little Boy,” by Mark Twain, is a story of a boy named Jacob Blivens who has a desire to be like the boys he has read about, but Jacob does not seem to be a very good boy in the end. In “The Story of the Good Little Boy,” Mark Twain uses both satire and parody which is not commonly seen in short story writing. Twain was quite the comedic writer in “The Story of the Good Little Boy,” he uses satire, parody, high comedy, as well as low comedy. In “The Story of the Good Little Boy” Mark Twain uses satire as one of his main points in this story. Satire is an author’s way of getting the reader’s attention through comedy to show the issues with a political or societal view, because of the way an

A parody is a recreation of a story to make fun of the original, in this case “The Story of the Good Little Boy” is a parody of the Sunday school books the boy mentions “This good little boy read all the Sunday-school books; they were his greatest delight.” (Twain 526). All of the good things that were supposed to happen when the boy did good went bad nothing seemed to go right for poor Jacob Blivens. Twain uses low comedy in “The Story of the Good Little Boy” low comedy is described as physical comedy which could include something as small as a stubbed toe or as big as an explosion meaning that the boy having the other boy fall on him, being attacked by the dogs, nearly drowning, and even exploding at the end, are all examples of low comedy. The aspects of low comedy Twain uses in “The Story of the Good Little Boy” help to make this parody even better by including great detail in the pain that was caused to Jacob Blivens, Twain can cause one to laugh at the absurdity of the things Jacob was put through. Causing one to laugh is an extremely good way to get their attention, Twain does a wonderful job at getting one’s attention to prove points and make fun throughout “The Story of the Good Little