'Marrying Absurd' and 'The Night the Bed Fell': More different than similar.
Although comedy and satire are similar literary styles, they sharply contrast in a few fundamental areas. These fundamental differences are clear in a comparison of the comedic short story 'The Night the Bed Fell,' by James Thurber, and the satiric 'Marrying Absurd,' by Joan Didion. Broadly defined, a comedy can be is a work depicting the uphill struggle and eventual success of a sympathetic hero; usually about ordinary people in difficult but non-life-threatening predicaments. Satire, on the other hand, is a genre that exposes and ridicules human vice and folly. Its characters are usually unsympathetic, often detestable and seldom commendable. 'Marrying Absurd' and 'The Night the Bed Fell' can be contrasted as representatives of their genre's in three areas: their tone, their purpose and their method.
The tone of a comedy is generally light-hearted and entertaining, whereas the tone of a satire is critical and ridiculing. In fact, what most sharply separates comedy from satire is their entertainment quality. In this tradition, through his descriptions' of various characters, Thurber clearly sets a lighthearted tone for his comedic short story, 'The Night the Bed Fell.' Thurber makes straightforward characterizations, rather than criticizing his characters for their eccentricity. For example, he describes his Aunt Gracie Shoaf as, 'having a burglar phobia, but she met it with great fortitude.she scared them off before they could take anything by throwing shoes down the hallway.' If the author was attempting to satirize his Aunt, he would criticize her for this strange behavior, but rather, he finds amusement in it. 'Marrying Absurd' on the other hand, has a clearly satiric tone. Through her use mellow drama, and exaggeration, Didion clearly communicates her satiric intention.

1. Didion uses this point to show how the sanctity of marriage is taken away by a three minute ceremony in a makeshift chapel. –Samantha Smith. Didion starts her essay Marrying Absurd with the appeal to logos by listing the legal qualifications to be married in Las Vegas.
2. Joan Didion wrote this essay in 1967, which has since become part of classic literature. 40 years later, forget about marrying absurd in Las Vegas, it is not inconceivable to see in a future not too far ahead where marrying in intself will become an absurdity.

Joan Didion Marrying Absurd Essay Example

Joan Didion (/ ˈ d ɪ d i ən /; born December 5, 1934) is an American writer who launched her career in the 1960s after winning an essay contest sponsored by Vogue magazine. Didion's writing during the 1960s through the late 1970s engaged audiences in the realities of the counterculture of the 1960s and the Hollywood lifestyle. Her political writing often concentrated on the subtext of.