Kim Douglas

Dr. Mary Warner

English 112B

3 December 2008

Humor In Literature: Exploring Cultural Diversity

Humor is a genre of literature that is capable of making an important contribution to learning and education. The desire to teach humor may exist, but due to its potentially challenging nature, it can be difficult to work into an instructor's schedule. Teachers are required to use works that will teach to testing, enabling students to raise scores and learn the basics of good writing through traditional means and methods. This usually means long, dull or predictable class periods, where it's hard to determine who's more relieved at the sound of the bell, the students or the teacher.

Many of the classics are necessary and worthwhile to achieve intended results, but students need to do more than go through the motions, while reading a book, whose worth is determined by the number of pages. In order for the student to become engaged in the material, they have to recognize ideas that they can identify with, even if they're from another world, time or society. For some, escape from their own lives is necessary, and this can be achieved through the use of humor and comedy in the classroom. At risk students, who don't read for pleasure and may not otherwise have pleasure or leisure away from school are especially receptive to this genre, because it sounds easy and different from what they're used to. They may feel that success is likely with humor, a feeling they don't get with other genres. These students have low self-esteem, limited life experiences and gaps in their education that make them unsure or unwilling to compete with their peers for equality in their analyses of works.

Humor and comedy expose truth when viewed critically and that critical analysis is necessary and relatively painless when working with this genre. There are also categories within humor that require explanation and students need to understand how to achieve this task. Humor requires deep thinking from the student in order to determine who the audience is and what context the author is writing in. The issue of representation of various world cultures is required, as well as cultures within one country, such as the U.S. Students see a narrow view of the world when there aren't examples of literature by anyone besides European Americans, especially when classrooms are only becoming more and more diverse. Instructors are able to reveal world views to students through analysis of humor and comedy and they may be the only source of enlightenment that students are exposed to. Performing poems, plays and parts of certain texts within the classroom is essential for the most intense comprehensive experience.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a canonical piece of literature that reveals many social messages, especially if students are asked to read certain parts in character. This makes analysis much more interesting, fun and informative. It's probable that students will retain the material after seeing, hearing and acting it out. Find places where the narrator is saying one thing and probably thinking or feeling something else. (M. LoMonico 117) Find the meaning below the surface.

Launching the Unit

1. Before reading any material, students will listen to a song, "LDN" by Lilly Allen in order to understand one type of humor and that it's sometimes subtle, with an underlying message. Many of Lily Allen's songs are funny, especially to this generation, but they all have a relevant message, and are about real life experiences. What is she trying to say about London? About life and people in general?

"LDN"
Riding through the city on my bike all day
Cause the filth took away my license
It doesn't get me down and I feel OK
Cause the sights that I'm seeing are priceless

Everything seems to look as it should
But I wonder what goes on behind doors
A fella looking dapper, but he's sitting with a slapper
Then I see it's a pimp and his crack whore

You might laugh you might frown
Walkin' round London town

[Chorus]
Sun is in the sky oh why oh why ?
Would I wanna be anywhere else
Sun is in the sky oh why oh why ?
Would I wanna be anywhere else

When you look with your eyes Everything seems nice
But if you look twice
you can see it's all lies

There was a little old lady, who was walking down the road
She was struggling with bags from Tesco
There were people from the city having lunch in the park
I believe that it's called al fresco
Then a kid came along to offer a hand

But before she had time to accept it
hits her over the head, doesn't care if she's dead
Cause he's got all her jewelry and wallet

You might laugh you might frown
walking round London town

Life, yeah that's city life, yeah that's city life, yeah that's city life

Life, yeah that's city life, yeah that's city life, yeah that's city life (taken from www.azlyrics.com)

2. Maya Angelou has a poem that is similar, in that it just seems funny-- at first, for obvious reasons. It's actually not a humorous poem, but at first glance, it could be. Don't young people often make fun of appearances? Is the poem really funny? What message is Maya Angelou trying to send to the reader? Is this a stereotype?

Momma Welfare Roll

Her arms semaphore fat triangles,
Pudgy hands bunched on layered hips
Where bones idle under years of fatback
And lima beans.
Her jowls shiver in accusation
Of crimes clich̩d by
Repetition. Her children, strangers
To childhood's toys, play
Best the games of darkened doorways,
Rooftop tag, and know the slick feel of
Other people's property.
Too fat to whore,
Too mad to work,

Searches her dreams for the
Lucky sign and walks bare-handed
Into a den of bereaucrats for
Her portion.
'They don't give me welfare.
I take it.'
Maya Angelou (taken from www.poemhunter.com)

3. To really get into humor as a genre, the classroom needs to be fully immersed in a script with various characters. Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers is a comedic play that teens can relate to, because the characters have relevance now, despite the World War II setting. There are morals and values to be pondered with world views, so it has a little of everything. As it's told through a thirteen and fifteen-year-old boy, students will take an immediate interest in the content. If time permits, assign roles and do a reader's theater in order to bring more life to the play.

4. The Main Text The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain pokes fun at racism and religion through the eyes of a young narrator. Huck escapes his abusive father and the widow who tries to civilize him with a slave named Jim. Together, they travel along the Mississippi River and have many adventures together. Jim and Huck face many hardships along the way, and it becomes a humorous journey for the both of them. (Summary adapted from the back cover of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain *Penguin Classics Edition).

This novel is so much a part of Americana, that no one can honestly say they've never heard of it. After reading the text, students can be given copies of parts of the dialogue and told to read them at face value. Ask for student response and discuss characters such as Huck and Jim.

Then, ask for other feedback, the material, feelings and emotions going on below the surface of the text.

Have students write an essay as one of the characters about social change and/or tolerance and have them read to the class.

Students can plan performances of the dialogue, giving them the practice to further analyze similar material in the future.

Extending the Unit

Many young adult literature novels address cultural diversity through humor. Some are about teens from the U.S. that travel abroad and others are about various cultures within the U.S.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007), Sherman Alexie recounts the trials of a Native American teenager, Arnold "Junior" Spirit, during his first year in high school. Using humor to soften the sometimes difficult and emotional story, Alexie creates a loveable, misfit protagonist whom readers cannot help but root for.

Mango Elephants in the Sun by Susana Herrera.

When the Peace Corps sends Susana Herrera to teach English in Northern Cameroon, she yearns to embrace her adopted village and its people, to drink deep from the spirit of Mother Africa and to forget a bitter childhood and painful past. To the villagers, however, she's a rich American tourist, a nasara (white person) who has never known pain or want. They stare at her in silence. The children giggle and run away.

Sophie Pitt-Turnbull Discovers America by Dyan Sheldon.

While spending the summer in Brooklyn with her mother's former schoolmate, Sophie, a sheltered English teenager, makes new and unlikely friends and finds a new side to her formerly "dull and passive" personality.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 by Sue Townsend.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 is an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into the troubled life of an adolescent. Writing candidly about his parents marital troubles, the dog, his life as a tortured poet and misunderstood intellectual, teenager Adrian Mole's painfully honest diary makes hilarious and compelling reading.

Angus, Thongs and full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison.

Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging follows the journal of a teenage girl named Georgia Nicolson who battles with love, life and her crazy cat named Angus.

The Classics

Instructors can also use classic pieces of literature to deliver the message of cultural diversity and/or tolerance.

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand.

Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand based on the life of the real Cyrano de Bergerac. The first four acts are set in 1640, while the fifth is set in 1655. An immediate triumph upon its release, the play is one of the most popular in the French language and has been filmed several times and even made into operas and ballets.

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift.

Gulliver's Travels (1726, amended 1735), officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships, is a novel by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the "travellers' tales" literary sub-genre. It is Swift's best known full-length work, and a classic of English literature.

Movies

Smoke Signals

Bend It Like Beckham

Milagro Beanfield War

Bringing Down the House

Roxanne

These are just some of several resources available to use in the classroom. Showing the movie versions of books can be used to cement concepts or write compare and contrast papers. Movies are probably the best sources to have available, as students are readily interested in the content and will pursue further knowledge within texts and poetry. The most important goal for any teacher is to create lifelong readers!

Works Cited

http://www.Abe Books.com

http://www.AdrianMole.co.uk/books/diary/html

http://www.enotes.com

http://www.wikipedia.org

LoMonico, Michael. Teaching English in the World. English Journal Vol.95 No1.September 2005. Louann Reid. Urbana, Illinois.

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels. New York: Dover Publications, 1996.

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Penguin Group 1985