Which phrase in this excerpt from Kurt Vonnegut's "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" is an example of sarcasm? To ask how much lon
ger the professor will live is to ask how much longer we must wait for the blessings of another world war. He is of short-lived stock: his mother lived to be fifty-three, his father to be forty-nine; and the life-spans of his grandparents on both sides were of the same order. He might be expected live, then, for perhaps fifteen years more, if he can remain hidden from his enemies. When one considers the number and vigor of these enemies, however, fifteen years seems an extraordinary length of time, which might better be revised to fifteen days, hours, or minutes. The professor knows that he cannot live much longer. I say this because of the message left in my mailbox on Christmas Eve. Unsigned, typewritten on a soiled scrap of paper, the note consisted of ten sentences. The first nine of these, each a bewildering tangle of psychological jargonand references to obscure texts, made no sense to me at first reading. The tenth, unlike the rest, was simply constructed and contained no large words.
I believe that the phrase “blessing
of another World War”, in this excerpt from Kurt Vonnegut's "Report on the
Barnhouse Effect", is an example of sarcasm. Sarcasm is a sharp remark similar
to irony. It also uses expression of one's meaning by using language that
normally signifies the opposite, in order to ridicule something or someone. In
this case, the word “blessing” is an example of sarcasm, as World War can’t be
the blessing.
It is being used as an adjective in the sentence, so the definition is,
<span>"(of an action) convenient and practical, although possibly improper or immoral." </span> The meaning of the word "expedient" most likely means practical or convenient
Allen states that since freedom of conscience and expression si in the First Amendment of the Constitution, then it is of the most importance to Americans.
