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The Facebook Sonnet Sherman Alexie Analysis

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The Facebook Sonnet is written by Sherman Alexie and was published in the in The New Yorker Magazine on May 16th 2011. The sonnet discusses and reflects upon the current generation’s infatuation, and borderline obsession with social media, that is far deeper than what is seen on a surface level. Alexie provides his own opinion of the website, conveyed through his diction and cynical tone. He analyzes how Facebook is furthering the immaturity of youth by creating users who worry about ways to make their lives appear fulfilling to the general public, in contrast to the mundanity in which they truly live. The second to last stanza of the poem, which will be analyzed in this paper, discusses the comparison of an online community replacing a religious institution. Alexie explores the replacement of religious institutions and communities with those online, through his use of metaphor and tone, which makes what the point in which he articulates inseparable from how it is written. Alexis’s comparison of an online social community to a religious institution is most prevalent in his use of religious communities as a comparison to one’s experience …show more content…

Here, the lack of privacy Facebook disallows is reiterated poignantly, as even religion, what is considered a private matter, has become easily accessible information. Alexie conveys the theme further by referencing that “church.com become our church.” (12), reinforcing that an online community has replaced the need for an offline one, with face-to-face interaction. Several metaphors are drawn between Facebook and a church, conveying the even the most sacred institutions are now comparable, and possibly outdated compared to facebook. The tone throughout the stanza conveys lighthearted cynicism, as it appears the Alexie is welcoming this new approach to community. The speaker’s unsureness of whether this is a suitable replacement is highly prevalent throughout the end of the

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