Satirical+Comic-+YJ+(Jenny)+J.+-+E

OXYMORON IS FUNNY. MIGHT NEED TO TAKE THE HYPERBOLE EVEN FURTHER BECAUSE UNFORTUNATELY THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO DO THIS.

Satirical Comic Project Proposal

Directions: Complete the following questions – short answers are acceptable. Please get approval from Ms. Porter before beginning your project.


 * 1. What do you plan to satirize (idea, organization, person, etc.)?**

I plan to satirize the tradition (especially in the Asian countries) of relying heavily on fortune telling. I have seen many people – especially before special or important occasions, go to ask fortune-tellers about their fate. Sometimes the feedback would be positive, and sometimes it would be negative (for instance, the person may tell you to stop dating someone because that person is dangerous or unhelpful to you). Regardless of how positive or negative the feedback is, I have seen numerous cases in which such reliance caused unnecessary doubts brought breaks in relationships or failure in business, which would have otherwise gone well. 
 * 2. What is the conflict in your story?**

A person decides everything in his life by the various fortune telling or Saju organizations. Even before his birth, his parents had gone to the fortune-tellers to ask them a) what dates are prospective to give birth, b) what names their child should have depending on the gender, c) where they should live and how they should take care of their child after being born, etc. While growing up, this becomes even more of a habit, and the boy is trained into thinking that he must always trust the fortune-tellers and do as they say. Thus, he begins to live a miserable life guided by fate, and not by his own wills.


 * 3. Briefly outline the plot events (bullet points okay)…**

1. The parents go to ask fortune-tellers about the date, name, etc., as mentioned above. 2. Baby is born. He is taken to the fortune-teller so that the parents can know what they should do with him. 3. Every time, before entering school or when confronted with difficult situations, the parents take the boy to the fortune-teller. The boy grows into the habit of relying on what the Saju man says. 4. The fortune-teller tells the boy that a) he will enter a very prestigious college and b) he will become a very successful business manager because he is very smart. 5. The boy, thinking that he can fare well even without effort, plays around and tells everyone that he is bound to go to Harvard/Wharton. 6. Later, the boy fails, and when he asks the fortune-teller why it is so, the f-t replies that occasionally (very very occasionally) he makes some mistakes, but he will definitely become successful later on. 7. He dates a girl, whom he sincerely cares for. Before deciding their marriage, they go to the f-t to see if their fate looks good. The f-t, sadly, says the two will soon break up. The two become doubtful of each other in every different occasion (unnecessarily), and thus later break up. 8. Having no wife and living in his parents’ house, still, the boy graduates from college and goes to the business companies. None accept him. 9. All the job he can find is as a cashier at K-mart. The boy works there, moneyless, loveless, and perhaps even lifeless, and lives in the illusion that he will, someday, become THE man. 10. One last time to the fortune-teller, and BOOM. (The final twist).


 * 4. Who are the characters? (a limited number is a good idea)**

- Parents - Boy, who later grows into a Man - Fortune teller - Girlfriend - Friends (which he doesn’t truly have due to his obsession and doubt; extras)


 * 5. State how you will use the following devices (use at least five of the six listed):**

A. Allusion At one point, the boy will allude to one of the arguments made by one of the Reformists on predestination.

B. Hyperbole (exaggeration) The over-obsession on fortune telling itself is extreme hyperbole (if hyperboles can become “extreme”), because I’m sure nobody will actually be so f-t- generated in their lives.

C. Oxymoron “Mutable/Modifiable Fate” will be the fortune-teller’s name.

D. Irony (sarcasm) - To be decided on, as I am writing…

E. Parody The way in which the fortune-teller is going to present himself will be kind of like a parody of Oz in the Wizard of Oz.

F. Understatement The boy will often make a remark defending other’s observations about his reliance on fortune telling. “What do you mean? I have been to the f-t only 30 times this year.”