Reader

Colin Cohen’s essay “No Death Penalty, No Easter Bunny” was published on his blog satiricalessays.blogspot.com and in a Kindle collection titled Satirical Essays. Consequently, the general audience is represented by online readers worldwide.

However, the topic and content of the essay suggest that the main target readership is the American audience. Cohen talks specifically about the death penalty in the US, as the references to “United States prisons” (p. 70, l. 17), “federal law” (p. 70, l. 37), and “wealthy Americans” (p. 71, l. 34) indicate.

Specifically, the essay addresses those who argue against capital punishment whom the writer describes as “well-intentioned sillies, wholly ignorant of where good intentions necessarily lead.” (p. 68, ll. 4-5). However, this is ironic because Cohen is, in fact, arguing against capital punishment himself through his satirical article.

The numerous religious references suggest that Cohen targets those who use religion as an argument both for and against capital punishment: “…death penalty lies at the foundation of the Christian religion; and without such a policy, we would not only be without Christianity…” (p. 68, ll. 6-7); “Those well-intentioned sillies may answer that God, when passing the Law onto Moses, expressly forbid the killing of people by virtue of the Fifth Commandment:” (p. 69, ll. 10-12)

When Cohen talks about the death penalt...