Assignment:
Animal's People Essay
Toward the end of Animal's People, Zafar tells Animal, "You have understood something worthwhile, my friend, in the end the only way to deal with tragedy is to laugh at it." How might Sinha's entire novel be seen as an embodiment of this insight? Citing specific incidents and scenes, evaluate the extent to which Animal's People can be viewed as a satirical novel, one that defies the moral obscenity of situations such as Khaufpur and Bhopal with its own insistent mockery, vulgarity, and wit. Your essays should evaluate the strengths of satire as a form of social and political critique, as well as its weaknesses and limitations. Make sure your essay draws on formal definitions of satire (here and here, for example), as well as relevant examples of satire, such Sinha's more recent articles in Animal's voice and The Yes Men's prank impersonating a Dow Chemical executive.
• Remember that your paper must follow the normal rules for a college essay. It needs a clear thesis statement that expresses a complex argument. It also needs to be organized into focused paragraphs, where each paragraph adds one rationale to help "prove" your thesis statement's claim. You must support each rationale with specific evidence from the text, and you must analyze and interpret that evidence. Finally, be sure to write your essay as grammatically and stylistically correctly as possible. Please review the essay grading guidelines in the left menu to understand how your paper will be assessed by your Instructor.
Format: equivalent of 5 to 6 double-spaced pages (12-point Times New Roman font) in a common word processing program such as Microsoft Word.