Stephen Leacocks How to Live to be 200 and Catherine Pigotts Chicken-Hips - Essay Example

There are some striking similarities in the satirical writing of Leacock and Pigott, in the way they celebrate the freedom to eat and do what one truly likes. Leacock says, “eat what you want. Eat lots of it. Yes, eat too much of it.” And Pigot notices that “a body is not something to be sculpted and molded”. However, their approach to the topic varies to some extent. Leacock just tries to exaggerate the extent to which health-mania makes men unrealistic about their life, their habits, and what they eat.

But his irreverence to the so-called healthy habits makes it impossible to analyze whether some of them carry elements of scientific truth, whether one likes it or not. Thus, he ends up making fun of every health habit and suggests a chaotic lifestyle tethering on hedonism. He even suggests improbable, though extremely funny, remarks about trapping fresh air in one’s room and keeping it, or taming bacilli and treating it as a pet. However, Pigot tries to balance her views on female body prototypes in the African and Western cultures.

Her writing style is more realistic and just observes the way in which cultural outlooks on beauty vary. She tries to adapt herself to both cultures when she is in touch with them and shows awareness of the logic that operates behind their differences in outlook. All through their essays, Leacock maintains an irreverent tone, and Pigot maintains the analytical sensibility that characterizes the narrator. Even though both essays could cater to all kinds of readers, Leacock evokes introspection through lambasting and sharp criticism while Pigot tries to be both humorous and realistic in her approach to the topic, suggesting a critical rethinking on cultural essentialism.