Satire and the Deployment of Irony in A Modest Proposal...

Satire and the Deployment of Irony in A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: of taxing our absentees at 5s. a pound: of using neither clothes, nor household furniture, except what is of our own growth and manufacture: of utterly rejecting the materials and instruments that promote foreign luxury: of curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in our women: of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and temperance: of learning to love our country, wherein we differ even from Laplanders, and the inhabitants of Topinamboo: of quitting our animosities and factions, nor acting any longer like the Jews, who were murdering one another at the very moment their city†¦show more content†¦Swift expertly wields irony as a tool to satirize the many butts of his essay. Although he seems to be taking a swipe at the practices of many people, from the English oppressors and the Americans to the Irish landlords and the poor, oppressed Irish, it may be argued that the main butt of his essay in t he above passage are actually the Irish. The above passage can be read ironically or non-ironically but it is possible to view the ironic message in it as the true message that Swift might be trying to convey in his satire of the Irish people. Before examining the deployment of irony and satire in A Modest Proposal, it is first necessary to understand the brief historical background of colonial oppression in Ireland and to establish the context of the above passage to the rest of the essay. At the time A Modest Proposal was written, Northern Ireland was colonized by England and there was deep-rooted animosity between the oppressed Irish Papists, and their oppressors, the English and their descendants in Ireland, who were mainly Protestants and were by-and-large the land-owners in Ireland. During that period of political and religious strife, Ireland was also overpopulated and in the throes of poverty. As stated in its subtitle, A Modest Proposal is presented as a legitimate proposal for preventing the children of the poor people in Ireland from being a burden to their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the public

Nathaniel Hawthorne s Young Goodman Brown - 951 Words

â€Å"‘Faith! Faith!’ cried the husband. ‘Look up to Heaven, and resist the Wicked one!’† (Hawthorne 270). Had he taken his own advice from the beginning of his story, Young Goodman Brown may have avoided his hopeless, gloomy future. In â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the story of a Puritan man’s journey through the forest to attend an illicit Black Mass. Along the way, Young Goodman Brown meets a mysterious traveler who, piece-by-piece, decimates Brown’s faith until it is entirely obliterated. Hawthorne uses characterization, symbolism, and irony to show that faith based on any person or entity other than God is easily lost and leads to bitterness and anger. Young Goodman Brown is an average Puritan man in Salem, Massachusetts, around the time of the Salem Witch trials. He is simple in dress and manner, and he is unremarkable in every way. He conforms to the zealously religious and rigid society in whi ch he lives, but his faith is placed more strongly outside of God than in God. He is curious about what else is out there, which is manifested in his plans to leave his young wife, Faith, for a night to pursue an unknown, evil purpose (Hawthorne 261). Brown commenced his fearful journey with unease, convinced that the devil could appear at any moment (Hawthorne 261). Not long after this thought, he encountered a man sitting under a tree. The man was â€Å"about fifty years old† and bore â€Å"a considerable resemblance to† Goodman Brown (Hawthorne 262). The manShow MoreRelatedNathaniel Hawthorne s Young Goodman Brown1543 Words   |  7 PagesIn Nathaniel Hawthorne s short story of Young Goodman Brown, the author uses symbolism and allegories in order to showcase the Puritan faith as well as man s conflict between good and evil. This analysis will break down the techniques that the author uses to critique the puritan society and to show the difference between how pe ople appear to be in society and the true colors that they are hidden inside of them. There has been a lot of great authors in our time, but none more interesting thanRead MoreNathaniel Hawthorne s Young Goodman Brown1065 Words   |  5 PagesWhen it comes to the topic of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown, most of us will readily agree that duplicity is a major theme in the piece, or the idea of different versions of reality. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of whether Hawthorne is implying that man is inherently evil. Whereas some are convinced that Young Goodman Brown was good until tainted by the Devil, others maintain that he was evil from the beginning and was completely aware of the evil heRead MoreNathaniel Hawthorne s Young Goodman Brown905 Words   |  4 PagesThough Nathaniel Hawthorne is an author of many great works, his short story â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† still stays relevant because it has themes and subjects that are relatable in today s world. In the story â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† Good man Brown leaves his wife Faith, to go into the woods near Salem to have a meeting with the devil. Appearance vs. reality is shown in â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† through the plot, the character of Goody Cloyse, and the symbol of the maple staff. The characterRead MoreNathaniel Hawthorne s Young Goodman Brown1312 Words   |  6 PagesWithin Nathaniel Hawthorne s short story Young Goodman Brown (p.317), Young Goodman Brown travels through a dark and mysterious forest late at night. Ignoring the pleas of his pure wife Faith, he ventures deep into the woods with many dangers around him, only to emerge in the morning a changed man with bewildered views on his own Puritan life and the Puritan community around him. At the cause for this change in mindset, the dream of an old man symbolizing the devil appears, showing him the communityRead MoreNathaniel Hawthorne s Young Goodman Brown Essay1274 Words   |  6 PagesIn Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† the devil says, â€Å"Evil is the nature of mankind† (â€Å"Young† 627). Since Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and attempted to hide conceal their sin from God, humans have tried to hide their sin from others. Although ever yone sin is human nature, everyone has a different reaction to sin. While some acknowledge sin, others ignore it. In Hawthorne’s other short story, â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil,† Father Hooper wears a black veil to represent the sin heRead MoreNathaniel Hawthorne s Young Goodman Brown Essay1449 Words   |  6 Pages â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† is a short story that is filled with symbols and mystery. Nathaniel Hawthorne provides plenty forms of symbolism for readers to digest. Hawthorne displays strong faith as the greatest virtue for a man or woman, and when the faith is compromised, one can be filled with skepticism and uncertainty towards the rest of the world. The story begins as a conventional allegory, creating the expectation that the characters will be able to consistently display the abstractions they symbolizeRead MoreNathaniel Hawthorne s Young Goodman Brown1695 Words   |  7 Pagesstory, Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne is set in Puritan New England. Hawthorne uses symbolism, description, scenery, and Goodman’s journey to illustrate and symbolize the battle of good versus evil. In the first scene, we see how Young Goodman Brown leaves his wife, Faith, to start on his â€Å"evil† journey through the woods. Though Faith asks him to stay with her, he chooses to continue on even though he knows the evilness lies ahead. As the story continues, we see how Hawthorne uses FaithRead MoreNathaniel Hawthorne s Young Goodman Brown1492 Words   |  6 PagesIn Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story of Young Goodman Brown, the author uses symbolism and allegories in order to showcase the Puritan faith as well as man’s conflict between good and evil. This analysis will breakdown the techniques that the author uses to critique the puritan society, and to show the difference between how people appear to be in society and the true colors that they are hidden inside of them. There has been a lot of great authors in our time, but none more interesting than NathanielRead MoreNathaniel Hawthorne s Young Goodman Brown2532 Words   |  11 PagesNathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† demonstrates how Goodman Brown leaves his wife, Faith, to do an errand within the woods with a man that is believed to be the devil. During the time period in which this took place, the 1620’s, many of the people from the village were practicing Puritanism. Puritanism is an intense practice of religion retrieved from Protestants, only removing its Catholic influence. When Goodman Brown entered the woods to meet the devil, he soon turned intoRead MoreNathaniel Hawthorne s Young Goodman Brown894 Words   |  4 Pagesread. In â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†, I found several romanticism characteristics to be in this story. One being, the emphasis on feelings and emotions. Nathaniel Hawthorne writes, â€Å"The cry of grief, rage, and terror was yet piercing through the night, when the unhappy husband held his breath for a response.† The cry of anguish and pain are very applicable to the protagonist idea in this story. Brown also expresses feeling when he doesn t want to leave his wife Faith, but he feels that it s his role to

Essay on Environment free essay sample

These environmental components are considered as the resources and are mostly exploited and utilized by the men to fulfill their basic physical needs they can be considered as the fellow members of the global eco-system with which men establish emotional, intellectual, or physical relationships and these provide the basis for a sense of purpose of life to them. Thus, man is firmly placed as an important part of the global ecosystem, which depends on him much as he depends on it. Hence, there is a close relationship between man and environment. Solutions/ ideas I do some things to make myself more environmentally friendly. I walk to school instead of driving because I live about two blocks away. I also take the bus when I go downtown or my friends house. When I need to get somewhere and many people are going, I carpool with some friends. I recycle any cardboard boxes and milk cartons, and I reuse water bottles and fill them with filtered tap water instead of buying more water. We will write a custom essay sample on Essay on Environment or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I take short showers and I dont leave the facet on when I am brushing my teeth. My mentor told me that a clean work place reduces the chance of people spreading any diseases. He also told me that many people are ill because their houses or work places are unsanitary. A clean environment is good for everyone, but we are far from one. If we continue what we are doing, most of our natural resources would be gone and our future generations would have nothing to survive on. We should focus more on renewable energy sources like the wind, sun, and maybe even rain instead of wasting all of our fossil fuels. We also need to do more with our trash instead of burning or burying it. I hope that if apply my studies to environmental problems and coming up with a solution to them, I can help make a better future for everyone The environment is really something we should start worrying about more than war or making more and more money. the explosion of the first nuclear weapon clearly made us reconsider the idea of war† (McKibben 500) This is because the nuclear weapons we had created a weapon that could not only kill millions of people but leave the soil poisoned with radioactivity, leave a nuclear winter behind, and even send society back to the Stone Age. Now we could affect the natural world in a massive and significant way, unlike before when our actions had little effect on the environment around us There are many environmental issues facing our world today. If I were given a year to improve the earths environment I would focus on one issue the world faces today, it is our dependence on oil. This dependence we have is so strong we have started wars, killed and deceived people for oil. I think it is time we do something about it and try and find an alternative form of energy. Because soon this problem will be too much for us to handle and by then it will be too late. Oil has become a pressing issue for both the USA and the world in the past century partly due to the fact that we are either too lazy or some people are too greedy to find an environmentally sound solution to our increasing dependence on it. There are many environmental problems linked to oil both directly and indirect.

Into The Wild Movie Vs free essay sample

He ended up living in the bus for a total of 113 days and then dying. Both the movie and book of Into the Wild explore the adventure that Chris Mishandles takes, while the book focuses on comparing Chris to other people and the relationships he had, the movie focuses specifically on the life story and adventure of Chris Mishandles, therefore the movie is better than the book. The number one thing I noticed in the movie that was different in the book is that Caring (his sister) tells the entire story. During the book though, the narrator position changes between interviewers and people he met. I think that by having Caring tell the story, the movie was a little more understandable. The book was a little complex because it is hard to determine who is telling the story. One thing the director did that really stood out to me was where he set the theme. We will write a custom essay sample on Into The Wild Movie Vs or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Along the journey Mishandles goes to a handful of places. Instead of filming in one place, the director traveled all over the IIS and filmed everywhere Mishandles went. My favorite thing that the director changed was how he added captions. The director also divided the movie into chapters. I enjoyed how he displayed quotes that Mishandles would read or write on the screen. For example, when they would read one of Uncleannesss journal entries they would display t on the screen for you to read along. In the film I am glad that the director made sure to include the adventures with Ian and Rained, they were very important in the story. Not to mention I think that in the book it told very little about Chris and Tracy, although in the movie it went into depth.Again the movie did a very good job of showing that Chris did not want any sort of relationship with anyone. Following Chris Mishandles death, a few months after the crime scene was revisited. After further investigation, they found out that he did not confuse the potato root and sweet pea. He actually died because the potato root plopped a mold because Mishandles was not storing them properly. Wish the director had put this in the movie. A lot of people think that Mishandles was a kid who was unintelligent and didnt think.This investigation shows that Mishandles was not an unintelligent kid making stupid decisions. It shows that if anyone else were in his situation, they would have died too, by accident. When Chris meets Jim Galling in the book, it tells about their conversation and explains how Jim Galling is a kind and gentle person. The director of the movie made Jim and Chrisms encounter very short and it felt as though Jim was almost rude, which he was not. The director should not have changed this part.My least favorite thing, in the movie that I do not think the director should have changed was putting in nudity and swearing. In the book, Chris says one swearword throughout the whole adventure. Personally to me, this movie should not have been rated R. Even though Chris Mishandles Visits the hot springs, the director did not need to show any nudity in it. I am glad that the director did not change anything that happened between Chris and Mr. . Stickles. The director did a very good job expressing how perfect their relationship was. He also did a very good job in the scene where Mr..Stickles asks to adopt Chris. I think that overall the director did an extremely good job at this adaptation of the book. When I read the book, felt like the narrators changed too much and there were to many side stories about different people. Although, in the movie felt that it focused just on Chris. Personally, I loved both the book and the movie for different reasons. If you wanted to learn about the basic life of Chris Mishandles I would recommend the movie. If you wanted more depth than the movie I would definitely recommend the book!