The Dreamworks film, Shrek is a great example of Satire. The producer of this movie uses many forms of satire. For those of you who are wondering what satire is, it is the use of humor to criticize something going on in society. The movie, Shrek, satirizes fairytales in many ways, one way being that the hero of this story is Shrek who is an ogre. This usually doesn't happen in fairytales where the ogre is the hero. In most fairytales the princess and lovely prince end up together, where as in this fairytale, the ugly ogre (Shrek) and the lovely princess (Princess Fiona, who later turns into an ogre) end up together.
There are many Parody's in Shrek. Parody's are just another form of satire in literature. There is a scene in Shrek where Robinhood's men come out of the forest that Shrek and Princess Fiona are passing through and the men try to capture the two of them. In the attempt to do so, they dance and sing while fighting each other. If you do not know which scene I am talking about see this video. (Shrek's Robinhood Men Scene) This satirizes (or is a parody of) West Side Story. There is a fight scene in West Side Story where the two groups are fighting while dancing, similar to that of Shrek, shown here. (West Side Story Scene)
Mark Twain uses the technique of parody to use satire in his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In one section of the novel, you learn of a family feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons. These two families live on the same island and have been fighting for as long as they can remember, but they have no recollection of what they are fighting about. At one point, one of the families kids runs off with the other families kid to get married. This starts more of the family feud. The family feud portrayed by Mark Twain is a parody of the family feud in real life between the Hatfields and McCoys. This real family feud was going on for a while but it really sparked when the McCoy's daughter, Roseanna, fell in love with the Hatfield's son, Johnsie. Just like in Huck Finn where the son and daughter get married and run off, making the family feud just that much more intense.
I never truly understood satire until I watched the Iphone commercial my teacher showed us in class. This commercial is satire of what society kept saying the Iphone 5 was going to be. Watching this video (Iphone 5 Satire) really helped me get a grasp on what satire is, and now reading Huck Finn I really catch Twain's use of this more often.
Parody is just one of the many forms of satire used in literature. Mark Twain uses satire throughout his novel quite frequently, however to me, my favorite scene so far is the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons feud so, I really enjoy this satire piece Twain intertwined into the novel.
