A Journal of the Plague Year

Sometimes, people may not fully understand the faults of a society, or how big of an impact an event is, until they are presented a piece of satirical or dramatic literature. Two great examples of pieces of literature that were used to educate their reader are A Modest Proposal, and Journal of the Plague Year. Both pieces of literature use two different styles of writing to convey their message. Jonathan Swift uses satire to try to solve Ireland's poverty dilemma, while Daniel Defoe tried to show the great impact of the Great Plague using a more dramatic approach. Even though both pieces were written in different styles of literature, both do a very good job of delivering their message. Jonathan Swift wrote A Modest Proposal in order to…

Defoe 's constant references to God in the journal of the plague year seem to highlight the importance of religion to people in 1664. Instead of keeping with the Christian values of the state, due to fear of the potential of a traumatic experience, the infected people were confined to their home. While Defoe believed the act was unsuccessful at stopping the spread, he believed the “confined the distempered people, who would otherwise have been both very troublesome and very dangerous” were…

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…

Restoration Nation The Restoration Period began in 1660 when the English monarchy was restored under Charles II. People started using science to explain previously unknown phenomena. English literature started to use precise language and the age of Satire began. John Milton wrote Paradise Lost in 1667 and presented Satan as a heroic figure who was cast out of heaven for being too ambitious. Daniel Defoe wrote A Journal of the Plague Year in 1722 and presented it as an eyewitness account of the…

Throughout the evolution of societies, the way people regard women and their roles in the community has changed. Thomas More’s Utopia and Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year focus on the role of women in their respective societies. Even though the novels are written nearly two hundred years apart, both regard women very highly and express their importance to their individual communities. However, over the two centuries that separate the novels, opinions and beliefs were sure to change,…

using the state’s money to raise, educate, and feed all the poor, impoverished children; the parents of babies should sell them at one-year-old for food and clothing. This idea was astonishing to many people and caused large amounts of chaos among everyone who read it. Swift uses satire towards many crowds including the English people, English government, and more harshly towards the Irish who were poor in England. He says that the English economy can be boosted by female beggars and wife…

Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine stated that the genetic mutation associated with sickle-cell anemia occurred thousands of years ago and continued to pass down through generations. The mutation holders were less likely to be affected by malaria (Kapes, 2009). More research on the effects of sickle-cell anemia and malaria was conducted by Dr. Allison of the British Medical Journal. He found studies in Northern Rhodesia, an area greatly affected by malaria, that indicated a positive connection…

they accidentally wound up in the Americas. The Florentine Codex and Columbus’ Journal were written around 1492. Similar documents were also written continually over the next hundred years. The Spaniards were coming into the lands of the Indians ready to fight for gold and destroy whatever they had to, but the Indians were in no way prepared for a fight because they had no weapons, they were friendly to the Spaniards, and they were dying of disease. The Spanish defeated the Indians because the…

London and the Plague Around the time of 1665 the plague took over London. An atmosphere of anxiety, desperation and fear imbued the London streets. The constant fear of being infected led many wealthy people to flee the city. It also pushed officials to enact new regulations. Reading fictional accounts like Daniel Defoe’s “A Journal of the Plague Year” allows readers to understand the altered city of London. The plague caused London’s culture to change. The Lord Mayor and…

connections: Text-to-Text, Text-to-Self, and Text-to-World—such connections can be made my completing a transactional journal assignment. A transactional journal derived from Louise Rosenblatt’s idea: “Who explained reading as a transactional process that occurs between the text and the reader” (“Transactional Reading Journal,” n.d., p. 1). When reading it is crucial for one to be aware that he or she develops a connection with the text; thus, allowing him or her to comprehend the text, as well…