Read Antonia Peacocke’s essay, “Family Guy & Freud: Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious” (pp. 147-159 in They Say/I Say), then answer the following question as a Blog post of at least 250 words: Using at least two direct examples from her essay, describe how Peacocke positions her voice within her essay. What might we learn, as writers, from her techniques and writing moves? What did she do well in her essay? Be as specific as possible. Post as “Sample Essay Response.”
Throughout her essay, “Family Guy and Freud: Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious”, Antonia Peacocke positions her voice within the text. One example of how does this is by professing her love for the show and engaging with some of the episodes. This allows her to make the essay personal, and thus make it seem as though she’s writing directly to the reader. An example of this is at the beginning of the piece when she says, “Any of my friends can tell you that this program holds endless fascination for me; as a matter of fact, my high-school rag-sheet “perfect mate” was the baby Stewie Griffin … I know every website that streams the show for free, and I still refuse to return the five Family Guy DVDs a friend lent me in 2006″ (Peacocke 147-48). Peacocke is professing her obsession for the show, but in doing so she also uses her own voice directly with personal pronouns. Another technique Peacocke uses to position her voice in the essay is with the use of naysayer statements. Her use of naysayers helps her personally interact with the perspectives and skepticism of the reader. Furthermore, through the use of these naysayer statements, Peacocke’s voice becomes apparent in the piece. An example of this is when she explores how some viewers may find the humor in Family Guy to be offensive. She says, “I must admit, I can see how parts of the show might seem offensive if taken at face value. Look, for example, at the mock fifties instructional video that features in the episode “I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar” (Peacocke 150). Peacocke appeals to her skeptics by admitting she understands how some jokes in Family Guy appear to be offensive at first glance. She goes on to answer this skepticism later in her essay when she explains that Seth MacFarlane uses this mock fifties instructional video as a tool to denounce and ridicule sexism. Not only is this an effective technique to strengthen her argument, but it also implements her voice and perspectives in a personal way. As a writer, we can learn from Peacocke’s writing by learning methods that indirectly position our voice in argumentative writing without having to rely on the use of “I” and other pronouns. Her personal relationship to the show and the naysayer statements are both ways in which she does this.
