While it may appear that city growth was ideal for any group of people at the time- and in turn contribute to moral growth- Swift suggests that growth of cities has caused inadequate public health. Whilst Gulliver is in Laputa he exclaims that he was “surprised to find corruption grown so high... by the force of luxury so lately introduced” which indicates he thinks luxury and selfishness causes corruption; and luxuries tend to come around when empires have grown and developed and therefore people being rich enough to buy luxuries and also greedy about it. Moreover this ironic juxtaposition between physical growth and moral decay highlights the satire portrayed by Swift and it also shows Gulliver’s confusion at how other countries “where vices
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At this stage of the novel Gulliver has visited three other islands and has changed dramatically, therefore he can now see through the political parties’ face of virtue and acknowledge the corruption that really embodies the country. After the Houyhnhnms explain this to Gulliver a sense of despair, negativity and confinement builds up within Gulliver. Swift uses satire and imagery to convey selfishness by deciding whether “flesh be bread, or bread be flesh.” This minor satiric incident is what has caused “many millions of lives.” In addition bread turning to flesh resembles the transubstantiation in the Holy Communion which is ironic because the Last Supper was supposed to be a celebratory meal free of ambiguity and being able to go to heaven but if wars are coming out of it, it devalues the meal. In addition Swift uses visual imagery too of “what is the best colour for a coat, whether black, white, or gray” to further emphasise the insignificant reasons for war breaking out. These diminutive arguments resulting in war are Gulliver’s “greatest attempt to ‘shame men out of their vices” according to one critic, which I agree on as the critic is talking about the novel in general and Gulliver’s travels is arguably Swifts most misanthropist based novel. However ‘A Modest Proposal’ by Swift also attempts to “shame men out of their vices” when he satirically suggests that the king kills all the poor people and feed them to the rich because of the famine that was going round in Ireland in 1729 due to three years of bad
At this stage of the novel Gulliver has visited three other islands and has changed dramatically, therefore he can now see through the political parties’ face of virtue and acknowledge the corruption that really embodies the country. After the Houyhnhnms explain this to Gulliver a sense of despair, negativity and confinement builds up within Gulliver. Swift uses satire and imagery to convey selfishness by deciding whether “flesh be bread, or bread be flesh.” This minor satiric incident is what has caused “many millions of lives.” In addition bread turning to flesh resembles the transubstantiation in the Holy Communion which is ironic because the Last Supper was supposed to be a celebratory meal free of ambiguity and being able to go to heaven but if wars are coming out of it, it devalues the meal. In addition Swift uses visual imagery too of “what is the best colour for a coat, whether black, white, or gray” to further emphasise the insignificant reasons for war breaking out. These diminutive arguments resulting in war are Gulliver’s “greatest attempt to ‘shame men out of their vices” according to one critic, which I agree on as the critic is talking about the novel in general and Gulliver’s travels is arguably Swifts most misanthropist based novel. However ‘A Modest Proposal’ by Swift also attempts to “shame men out of their vices” when he satirically suggests that the king kills all the poor people and feed them to the rich because of the famine that was going round in Ireland in 1729 due to three years of bad