Soph Extra Credit!!! Hand in with Journal!
Read the entry and complete the assignment that follows for four points extra credit.Follow this link to read The Story of the Bad Little Boy, a Mark Twain parody of a Sunday school story.
In the mid-nineteenth century, Sunday School stories were moral tales written for the little boys and girls who learned the difference between right and wrong at their local churches in Sunday School.
These stories always ended with a good dose of poetic justice. The good boys and girls were rewarded; the not-so-good boys and girls were summarily punished, learned the error of their ways, and turned out to be model boys and girls themselves.
Mark Twain pokes fun at these stories in The Story of the Bad Little Boy.
Assignment
For extra credit, answer these questions:
1. Define a parody. How is The Story of the Bad Little Boy a parody of the stories in Sunday School books.
2. What details contribute to the humor of The Story of the Bad Little Boy?
3. What details contribute to the serious theme of The Story of the Bad Little Boy?
4. What storytelling "tricks" does Twain use to make the story entertaining, if not humorous? In other words, how does Twain's narration of the story make it entertaining?
5. Tell me about a movie or television show that is an example of a parody. Explain.
posted by JTF @ 11:24 AM
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1. A parody is a humorous imitation of a serious song, piece of literature, or writing. The Story of the Bad Little Boy is a parody of the stories in Sunday School books because in Sunday School books the bad kid always turns good and ends up regretting what he did and apologizing. In The Story of the Bad Little Boy, the boy never sees the error in his ways or feels guilty and apologizes for his sins. What makes The Story of the Bad Little Boy a parody is how it mocks the traditional tales told in Sunday School and says the complete opposite of the stories told in Sunday School.
2. Details that add humor to The Story of the Bad Little Boy are the Twain will say how something happens in Sunday School stories and then says that what happens in those stories does not happen in this story. Another aspect of the story that makes it laughable is how the boy Jim never seems to get into any trouble but the people that he sets up do and he rarely gets punished.
3. One big detail that adds serious to this story is that the boy does not feel any guilt at all for his heinous acts. The fact that he doesn’t seem to care about anyone but himself. Even when he has a family of his own he ends up hitting them all on the head and abusing them to profit himself.
4. A “trick” that Twain uses to make the story entertaining to read is how all throughout the story he is comparing his own story to a typical story found in a Sunday School. This constant comparison makes the story easy and fun to read because it says what would normally happen but then goes on to tell you what actually happened.
5. The movie series Scary Movie is a great example of a parody. It makes fun of scary movies and portrays them in an amusing light making them extremely funny to watch if you have seen the original movies that they are making fun of.
A parody is a funny imitation of a serious piece of writing, speech, or just about anything. The main thing about a parody is not its funniness, but its mockery of a serious object. The Story of the Bad Little Boy is a parody, because it makes fun of the Church, in particular Sunday School books. The Story of the Bad Little Boy makes fun of Suday School books with the main character's name, Jim. Jim is the most common name in Sunday School books, books that teach moral lessons and proper manners. Mark Twain makes fun of this pious name by making Jim be very bad. Jim fills his mother's jam jar with tar, steals multiple apples from the farmer and does not get caught and repent, and he steals his teacher's pen knife and blames someone else. Another way this story makes fun of Sunday School books is by making fun of the Sabbath. In most books the bad children always get struck down on the Sabbath, because they are not going to Church and are not up to anything good. However, in Mark Twain's book Jim, a very bad boy never gets struck down for doing something bad on the Sabbath. Jim hits his sister, shoots a gun, and goes fishing all on the Sabbath and never gets punished. Mark Twain makes fun of Sunday School books by making a pious symbol bad.
1. a parody is a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing. The Story of the Bad Little Boy is a parody of the stories in Sunday School because he is making fun of the stories told in Sunday school, and imitated them but in his own new way of how he thinks it actually happens.
2. The details thats contribute to the humor of The Story of the Bad Little Boy are the boy's name and also the way he lists what would happen in the sunday school stories. He states that all sunday school stories make the bad little boy's name James, but in this story his name was Jim (another name for James). In every situation that the boy gets into, Mark Twain states what is not going to happen. These things in the story were humorous to me.
3. I think all of the violence contributes to the serious theme of The Story of the Bad Little Boy. Whatever the little boy does, he never gets caught or punished, even if it is as bad as punching his little sister.
4. The way Twain is telling the story as if he were talking to the readers makes it humorous. He criticizes the Sunday School stories basically showing how predictable they all are.
5. All of the "Scary Movies" are examples of a parody. They are humorous and make fun of the scary movies that were popular that year. They poke fun at the actors in the movies, and other things as well, just like in The Story of the Bad Little Boy.
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