An Analysis of Thurber's CarnivalThe fables for our times contained in Thurber's Thurber's Carnival are, in my opinion, particularly good examples of a writer who succeeded in " breaking the frames” in order to create humor and satire. In this essay, I will explore the main methods Thurber used to create humor and satire in the fables "The Shrike and the Chipmunks" and "The Unicorn in the Garden"2. First of all, what do I mean by "broken frame"? '? This is a reference to the idea that the violation of our "frames of reference", and the recognition of the incongruity it causes, is the fundamental element of humor. If the incongruity has to be explained away, the humor will be lost. Kant expresses this idea when he says: “Laughter is an affection which arises from a tense expectation which is suddenly reduced to nothing”3. Thurber violates several different types of expectations in his attempts to create humor and satire. These range from waiting for the rules of fable and other literature, to waiting for characterization, and waiting for the familiar saying. “The Shrike and the Chipmunks” is above all a parody of the traditional fable. It has all the traditional ingredients: anthropomorphized Chipmunks, corresponding to stereotypical human characters, building suspense about a type of behavior perceived to be good or bad, a corresponding climax and a moral at the end. Anthropomorphism is a common humor technique. Umberto Eco explains that this is so that the audience can laugh at the "broken frame", without the discomfort of empathizing with the frame breaker. “This is why the animalization of the comic hero is so important”4. But quite outside this usage, Thur...... middle of paper ...... 1-9.Kant, Immanuel.Critique of Judgment, Book II. E307 Photocopy. pp. 196-203. Thurber, James. Thurber's Carnival. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1983. Endnotes1. Umberto Eco, “Frames of Comic Freedom,” in Carnival!, ed. TA Sebeok (Berlin: Mouton Publishers, 1984), p. 4.2. James Thurber, The Thurber Carnival (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1983). Fables for our times pp. 278 - 305. "The Shrike and the Chipmunks" pp. 290-291. "The Unicorn in the Garden" pp. 304-305.3. Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgment, Book II, E307 Photocoy. p. 199.4. Eco, p. 2.5. Thurber, p. 290.6. Thurber, p. 290.7. Thurber, p. 291.8. Thurber, p.305.9. Burton Bernstein, Thurber: A Biography (Great Britain: Lowe & Brydone, 1975), p. 308.10. Eco, p. 2.