Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The Mood of "The Men Who Stare At Goats"

The Men Who Stare At Goats is both humorous and serious because it informs of true events and it entertains the reader. The book is humorous by the several characters that are unintentionally funny. For example, one man, Guy Savelli, was part of a psychic group of military people and he claimed to have killed his hamster. "And then he said- and his voice sounded sorrowful and distressed- 'Last week I killed my hamster.'" When Guy said he killed his hamster, he was talking about how he used psychic powers to kill it, and then shows Jon Ronson the video of him staring at it, but it never actually dies. This brought humor into the book and made it more than just a book of information. Another part of the book that had humor was when a man by the name of Pete Brusso, a teacher of martial arts who believes in psychic powers, actually beats up the reporter Jon Ronson. "I didn't see Pete's hands move. All I know is that both my armpits, my neck, and my chest began to hurt enormously, all at once, and then I was flying..." Pete Brusso asked Ronson to choke him, so he did, and that is what happened; he got thrown up in the air without really even knowing how it happened. This seemed like a hilarious break in the book because it was unexpected.

The book is also serious because Jon Ronson talks about real world issues, like the war in Iraq and the 9/11 attacks. A man named Bert Rodriguez, a martial arts teacher who also believes in psychic power, was apparently a trainer of Ziad Jarrah who took down one of the planes on 9/11. "Ziad Jarrah was twenty-six when he took control of United Airlines flight 93, which came down in a field in Pennsylvania on its way to Washington, D.C." This part of the book had a very serious mood to it because it talked about how Bert Rodriguez unknowingly taught a terrorist martial arts to prepare him for the 9/11 attacks. 

No comments:

Post a Comment