Jonathan Swift’s A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms and Anna Barbauld’s The Mouse’s Petition both combat important social issues through the use of allegories. A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms attacks the horrid ways humans have treated animals below us on the food chain by detailing Captain Gulliver’s encounter with a society where humans are the underclass and horses are at the top of the food chain. On the other hand, The Mouse’s Petition tackles the humanitarian crime that is slavery by providing it’s audience with a unique perspective as a helpless captive controlled by someone else’s decisions. While the issues may be different, both authors use animals as a way to artfully teach their audience a lesson while also entertaining them. Inequality
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It is often too easy to allow yourself to hurt others by arguing that these actions are, overall, good in the long run. The mouse in this story speaks out against this rationalization by asking his enslaver to not “triumph that thy wiles betrayed a prize so little worth” (239). The goal of this mouse’s plea is to ask the captor whether all the pain he carelessly inflicts upon his subject is worth the little return he will be granted at the end of the experiment. Far too often people fail to place themselves in someone else’s shoes and question whether the actions they take against others are worth the little they might gain. Here, Barbauld urges the people of the eighteenth century to ask themselves if the pain they are inflicting upon others because of their desire for free labor is at all ethically responsible. Towards the end of the poem, the mouse warns his captor to “tremble lest thy luckless hand dislodge a kindred mind” (240). The scientist without thought has captured this mouse and plans to kill him without ever knowing anything about him; this is a direct comparison to the slaves that have been captured. Slaves were automatically thought to be not as smart as other ethnicities and of nothing of value, but Barbauld warns people to be weary of killing someone who may possibly be similar to them …show more content…
Swift is able to point out the errors that come from the mistreatment of animals and forces his audience to switch perspectives through the use of a horse, an animal that has been taken advantage by people for centuries. Similarly, Barbauld is successfully able to get her readers to question the way humans use and abuse other people and animals for their own gain, and whether the ends justify the means. Swift and Barbauld recognized the advantages of using animals to teach their audience a lesson; they were able to address certain injustices without it seeming obvious or patronizing. Focusing on animals as a bearer for morals in this way allows the reader to enjoy a story in which they can take advantage of an outside perspective on many issues where they may actually be a part of the
It is often too easy to allow yourself to hurt others by arguing that these actions are, overall, good in the long run. The mouse in this story speaks out against this rationalization by asking his enslaver to not “triumph that thy wiles betrayed a prize so little worth” (239). The goal of this mouse’s plea is to ask the captor whether all the pain he carelessly inflicts upon his subject is worth the little return he will be granted at the end of the experiment. Far too often people fail to place themselves in someone else’s shoes and question whether the actions they take against others are worth the little they might gain. Here, Barbauld urges the people of the eighteenth century to ask themselves if the pain they are inflicting upon others because of their desire for free labor is at all ethically responsible. Towards the end of the poem, the mouse warns his captor to “tremble lest thy luckless hand dislodge a kindred mind” (240). The scientist without thought has captured this mouse and plans to kill him without ever knowing anything about him; this is a direct comparison to the slaves that have been captured. Slaves were automatically thought to be not as smart as other ethnicities and of nothing of value, but Barbauld warns people to be weary of killing someone who may possibly be similar to them …show more content…
Swift is able to point out the errors that come from the mistreatment of animals and forces his audience to switch perspectives through the use of a horse, an animal that has been taken advantage by people for centuries. Similarly, Barbauld is successfully able to get her readers to question the way humans use and abuse other people and animals for their own gain, and whether the ends justify the means. Swift and Barbauld recognized the advantages of using animals to teach their audience a lesson; they were able to address certain injustices without it seeming obvious or patronizing. Focusing on animals as a bearer for morals in this way allows the reader to enjoy a story in which they can take advantage of an outside perspective on many issues where they may actually be a part of the