The Uses of Satire in Fiction: an Analysis of Wahome Mutahi's Three Days on the Cross and the Jail Bugs

Abstract

This study is a stylistic analysis of satire as a technique used in literary fiction. The study sets out to investigate the necessity and impact of satire as a literary technique, when used in prose works. The study proceeds with the premise that satire is a powerful tool in literature and it has both linguistic and social inclinations. The major emphasis of this study is to interrogate the relationship between linguistic, narrative, thematic and characterisation aspects of satire.

This study is, thus, an examination of how narrative techniques, thematic intentions and linguistic choices are closely interwoven and specifically tailored to bring out an intelligible and overall powerful aesthetic effect and beauty in his novels. The research is largely guided by the basic tenets of stylistics which it uses to highlight the power of satire as an artistic tool used by fiction writers in general and Mutahi in particular. The stylistic approach is used because of its emphasis on linguistic evidence and de-emphasis of speculation and impressionism. In the process, we also acknowledge Mutahi's biographical details and how they affect the satirical beauty and thematic structure of his texts. The study essentially explores and implores different satirical techniques and how they are deliberately and specially juxtaposed with themes, characters and the overall narrative success of Wahome Mutahi's two texts The Jail Bugs and Three Days on the Cross. A common_feature of the two texts_is their thematic concern with police brutality. But at stylistic and narrative level, they slightly differ. While The Jail Bugs has a freer plot and lighter sense of humour and comedy, Three Days on the Cross is rather constrained and not gay in mood ..

Nonetheless, in both texts. the author has employed various narrative and stylistic techniques to develop characters, foreground themes, further his satirical agenda and made his works aesthetically interesting and articulate. All in all, an analysis of the two texts reveals that, satire plays an important role in the overall aesthetic meaning of these works of fiction. Although the author is more satirically articulate in The Jail Bugs than in Three Days on the Cross, we note that the satirical style has been effectively deployed with immense success in both texts. Of particular interest, is the way in which various

satirical techniques have been used by the author to bring out themes like politics, police brutality and religious hypocrisy. In a word, the author mocks and ridicules the wrong doer while at the same time using his characters as mouthpieces through which he makes his social commentary. Through these two texts, the author affirms that literary style and satire in this case, determines how a text is read, interpreted and understood.