Blog 14: Short Analysis Essay The Shaggy Dog Stories Draft

Generra Johnson

23 October 2012

ENG 3029-01

Professor Chandler

Blog 14: Short Analysis Essay

The Shaggy Dog Stories Draft

Introduction and Question:

           

Everyone knows about jokes. For every joke there is a punch line, and for every fable there is a moral. Well the Shaggy Dog Stories have both jokes and morals that have things in common with the college aged readers. What are features the Shaggy Dog Stories have that connect to the college aged reader, you might ask? Well the Shaggy Dog Stories have a connection and relationship with the college aged readers through the morals and jokes. The connection can be shown through the reader’s interests and lives.

Codes and Categories:

           

The things the Shaggy Dog Stories have in common with the college aged readers are: morals, jokes, political knowledge, twists in the stories, the emotions that the readers felt while reading the stories, authority, having your own authority, a play on words, violence, action, a plot twist, a punch line, information, knowing the quote, the meaning of the story, and that there is truth to the stories.

Patterns:

            Now the stories were funny, and they were ranked by class ENG 3029 section 01 of Kean University. The ranks are in the order of which is the funniest. The funniest stories are ranked five, and the least funny is ranked one. The ranks are a five out of five, five being the highest and one being the lowest.

Nate, the Snake	1	4	4	4	1
Friars	1	1	6	2	4
Chess Players		2	4	5	3
Friday and Robinson Crusoe	5	3		2	4
The Panda Bear	7	4		1	2

            The pattern that follows in the Shaggy Dog Stories according to the college aged readers: The story of Nate the snake received the lowest ratings. The story of the friars received the second lowest ratings. The story of the chess players was in third place. The story of Friday and Robinson Crusoe was in second place, and in first place was the story of the panda bear at the restaurant. This survey explains that everyone liked the story of the panda bear the most, and the story of Nate the snake was liked the least among the college aged readers.

            There is more to the pattern of why the stories were liked and disliked. It has to do with the connection the college aged readers have with the Shaggy Dog Stories. From what was observed the connection the college aged reader has with the Shaggy Dog Stories are: the jokes, the play on words, and the punch line. It repeated this specific pattern, when observed in the classroom, going from the jokes to the words to the punch line, and then back again.

            There were also reasons why the college aged students of Kean University liked the funny Shaggy Dog Stories. Some people in the class related to the stories. One example might be that some of the people in the class remembered if they were ever bullied by someone like the friars were, in the friar story. They also probably really connect to the friars if they were not able to stop the bully and had to run away from them. Some people in the class liked how funny the punch line was. One example of a punch line is in panda bear story, “[A] ‘Giant panda, lives in China, eats shoots and leaves.’ ” As for me as a person one punch line I can relate to every week is in the Friday and Robinson Crusoe story, “His helper answered, ‘Thank Friday! It’s God!’ ” If a person reverses the order of those words in the story, they really say in real life, “Thank God It’s Friday!” Furthermore what it means is a person is happy that the day Friday is here.

Another theme that made the Shaggy Dog Stories funny was the violence in the stories. The college aged readers as observed were more attracted to the most violent stories. This will also explain why Nate, the snake was the least funniest story, and why the panda bear story was the most funniest, even though they are both violent stories. Both stories have main characters- Nate, the snake and the panda bear. But Nate the snake was killed while the panda bear killed the people in the restaurant. Then another difference is the panda bear had dialogue in his story, but Nate the snake did not have any discourse. What is more interesting is in both stories the brutality is explained by the punch line. For example, when Nate the snake was squashed, when he was protecting the lever, which could destroy the world, the punch line said, “The boulder ran over Nate, but it was, in fact, deflected, leaving history to conclude that is was better Nate than lever.” In other words Nate was better off being sacrificed than the whole world. But again if a person rearranges the words in this story, they will get, “Better Late than Never.” As stated, the punch line has to be strong and it known by the reader to have a connection with the college aged reader.

Hypotheses and Theory:

            My hypotheses for the Shaggy Dog Stories are: What features do the Shaggy Dog Stories have in common with the college aged readers? What morals and jokes do the college aged readers have a connection to when reading the Shaggy Dog Stories? Another hypothesis of mine is: The stronger the connection to the audience the funnier the punch line. My theory is: the Shaggy Dog Stories have punch lines and jokes that are significant to the college aged reader. It explains what jokes and punch lines do college aged readers relate to the most.

Conclusion:

So now it is known that every punch line has a connection to the reader, when it has a good joke placed before it. How does the punch line relate to the college aged reader? The college aged reader relates to the punch lines by personal experience, and if they have ever heard of the punch line before. Also the punch lines are strong and liked the most among the college aged reader because of the joke that is added. That is how a punch line becomes significant to the college aged reader.