Enlightenment Authors and Their Works
The Enlightenment Era was an intellectual movement which took place in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. This movement, also known as the age of reason, holds importance because world ideas such as order, balance, logic and reason dominated. The Enlightenment Era was empowered by the Scientific Revolution. This philosophical, cultural, intellectual and social movement spread throughout England, France, Germany, and Europe during the 1700s. Where those who lived focused on more than just religion based ideas. The Enlightenment produced countless essays, inventions, scientific discoveries, laws, and revolutions. Writers also sought to examine society and human nature and enlighten their …show more content…
Throughout A Journal of the Plague Year, as Defoe explains the troubles of the plague he is reflecting the social ideas of that time period. De La Fontaine wrote the fable The Acorn and the Pumpkin displaying that the story written was meant to teach a lesson for those of that time period. In the fable, a village bumpkin named Garo questions God’ creations. Garo continues to accuse God of making things wrong in the world. “...who found one, gazed at it,/And wondered how so huge of a fruit could be/Hung from so slight a stem: “It doesn’t fit!/God’s done it wrong! If He’d asked me,/He’d hang them from those oaks. Big fruit, big tree”(The Language of Literature 541). Garo thinks that God created a pumpkin wrong as in the big fruit should be hung from a big tree. As Garo falls asleep under the oak tree something falls from above and hits him on the nose, this making him wake up. “...though, he painfully awoke:/An acorn, falling, hit him on the nose./Rubbing his face, feeling his beard./”A bloody nose from this?” he muses. “I must say, things aren’t quite what they appeared.My goodness, if this little nut/Had been a pumpkin or a squash, then what”(TLOL 541) As this happens to Garo, he realizes that he questioned God in something that he had not had full knowledge of. He then realizes that God was bringing him a …show more content…
Both of these very talented writers sought to examine society and human nature and enlighten their readers in a way that captured the era’s ideals. Teaching lessons and showing hardships in the era from their works in ways that not many could do. Taking a step back and looking at the comparison between the seventeenth and eighteenth century and the “now days” not many aspects or ideas have changed. Although as time goes on society grows to be more and more advanced, yet there are still aspects of society today that reflect ones of the Enlightenment era. Fear of sickness or death and thinking above our power are both ideas of society
The Enlightenment Era was an intellectual movement which took place in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. This movement, also known as the age of reason, holds importance because world ideas such as order, balance, logic and reason dominated. The Enlightenment Era was empowered by the Scientific Revolution. This philosophical, cultural, intellectual and social movement spread throughout England, France, Germany, and Europe during the 1700s. Where those who lived focused on more than just religion based ideas. The Enlightenment produced countless essays, inventions, scientific discoveries, laws, and revolutions. Writers also sought to examine society and human nature and enlighten their …show more content…
Throughout A Journal of the Plague Year, as Defoe explains the troubles of the plague he is reflecting the social ideas of that time period. De La Fontaine wrote the fable The Acorn and the Pumpkin displaying that the story written was meant to teach a lesson for those of that time period. In the fable, a village bumpkin named Garo questions God’ creations. Garo continues to accuse God of making things wrong in the world. “...who found one, gazed at it,/And wondered how so huge of a fruit could be/Hung from so slight a stem: “It doesn’t fit!/God’s done it wrong! If He’d asked me,/He’d hang them from those oaks. Big fruit, big tree”(The Language of Literature 541). Garo thinks that God created a pumpkin wrong as in the big fruit should be hung from a big tree. As Garo falls asleep under the oak tree something falls from above and hits him on the nose, this making him wake up. “...though, he painfully awoke:/An acorn, falling, hit him on the nose./Rubbing his face, feeling his beard./”A bloody nose from this?” he muses. “I must say, things aren’t quite what they appeared.My goodness, if this little nut/Had been a pumpkin or a squash, then what”(TLOL 541) As this happens to Garo, he realizes that he questioned God in something that he had not had full knowledge of. He then realizes that God was bringing him a …show more content…
Both of these very talented writers sought to examine society and human nature and enlighten their readers in a way that captured the era’s ideals. Teaching lessons and showing hardships in the era from their works in ways that not many could do. Taking a step back and looking at the comparison between the seventeenth and eighteenth century and the “now days” not many aspects or ideas have changed. Although as time goes on society grows to be more and more advanced, yet there are still aspects of society today that reflect ones of the Enlightenment era. Fear of sickness or death and thinking above our power are both ideas of society