Satire In Modest Proposal And Gulliver's Travels

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Satire can be found in lots of areas of modern day society. From a literature aspect to the goofy vines on Facebook, humor really does make the medicine go down a bit easier. Satire has been present in facets of society in the past, but because of “social taboos” it was often times not as affluent. Satire is visible in media and literary works, for example, Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal and Gulliver’s Travels both share some of the satirical elements including: exaggeration, incongruity, and parody. An example of satires element of reversal can be found in the video Tips For Nailing a Job Interview from The Onion. To begin with, Swift’s Modest Proposal reveals examples of exaggeration and parody. Some examples of exaggeration are when Swift pitches the idea to eat babies to save Irelands economy. “That a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food” Swift is using a type of satire when he said that a 12 month old baby is a wholesome food, he is trying to get peoples attention so they will recognize how bad there economy is and how horrible the british are treating the…show more content…
The part which establishes the most satire is when swift introduces the Yahoos to the reader. Swift is using parody to show the flaws mankind has. The yahoos are ugly and dumb much like a cave man “Their heads and breasts were covered with a thick hair, some frizzled, and others lank they had beards like goats, and a long ridge of hair down their backs, and the fore parts of their legs and feet”. This is were Swift is making fun of the yahoos and all of there imperfections. Swift is using parody to make fun of mankind by saying that we are all yahoos and that we have adapted ourselves to see mankind as amazing, beautiful people when realistically our world is full of people that are as ugly on the inside as the Yahoos are on the

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