Examples of Satire or Deception

Jonathan Swift wrote his 1729 satirical essay "A Modest Proposal" to convey the plight of the starving Irish tenants and the lack of compassion of their English landlords.

Over a century later, Mark Twain wrote his satirical novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which mocks the romance novels popular in the 1880's.

Satire continues to be used to demonstrate the gullibility of people who accept without question information which they find on a web page. For example, Lyle Zapato has posted websites such as "Belgium" and the "Pacific Northwest tree octopus (Octopus paxarbolis)" which are used as object lessons by information literacy instructors. -DD