In George Saunders’ essay, “Hypocrites,” Saunders attempts to portray the hypocritical nature of mankind particularly through his personal experiences and irony. Saunders starts out the essay with a particular instance of when he saw Father X and Sister Y breaking the rules of the church. This shocking, yet incredibly interesting, anecdote helps draw the reader in to the essay, as well as to help remain as a basis upon which many of the other important, ironic points of the essay can be drawn upon. For example, Saunders ends with a shocking anecdote about how he was fired from being a reader of the Bible for his church because Father X did not approve of his long-ish hair. The irony in this was that long hair was a far less punishable crime than Father X’s religious crime with Sister Y. However, Father X was condemning Saunders so ruthlessly (Saunders was not even giving the warning to cut his hair) for such a miniscule, subjective detail, while Father X was getting away with a much greater crime. This double standard within the church helped to nicely summarize Saunders’ point that humans are hypocritical. In doing this, Saunders is able to analyze well the humanness of all people and that despite whatever power people may have, all people have their flaws. This epiphany helped Saunders to better understand the human race, and he was able to feel better connected to Jesus. Saunders is able to portray this epiphany throughout his essay by using the example of Father X and Sister Y, and then, after analyzing this encounter, mentioning how he was fired from his reading job for hair that was too long. By doing this, Saunders is able to effectively accomplish his purpose of explaining the nature of mankind through the use of personal anecdotes and irony.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/09/hypocrites?printable=true¤tPage=all
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