The Modest Proposal And Gulliver's Travels By Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was a famous author whose works greatly influenced society during the Enlightenment period. Swift was a satirist who wrote a lot about the English monarchy, who was confiscating parts of Irish land to sell them to English families. At this time the Protestants and Catholics did not get along. The Protestants did everything they could to prevent the Catholic religion from growing by depriving them of what American’s see as basic rights today. This issue was crucial for Swift because he was a protestant born to an English family. This is what inspired his writings to address the many social, political, and economic issues of England. Jonathan Swift’s works influenced society by indicating the faults of England which made the public realize how faulty their government was, understand how they are seen by people outside of their society, and see the need for social improvement by forcing the public to come to their own conclusions through “The Modest Proposal” and “Gulliver’s Travels”.
In Jonathan Swift’s book “A Modest Proposal,” Swift seizes his opportunity to discuss his concerns that he has with both the English and the Irish themselves. At this time, Swift was exasperated with the way that the Irish was handling England’s exploitation; instead of trying to fight back in …show more content…
Writers tried to conform to the authority of tradition: government and church. What makes Swift’s writing different, is that he typically wrote about the English government in a way that could potentially be dangerous. Swift was always sending political messages about the English government and even the king himself to the readers who may have been too involved with the government to see the harsh reality behind the government’s motives. Using specific dates, times, events, and important encounters, Swift would sway the public’s opinions. In book one of “Gulliver’s Travels” Swift