“Good satire comes from anger. It comes from a sense of injustice, that there are wrongs in the world that need to be fixed.” This is a statement made by popular writer, Carl Hiaasen. Swift uses satire effectively by using it expressively, to point out arbitrary political issues, and expose imperfection. To begin with, Swift’s satire isn’t offensive, but it is eloquent. For others, satire is used with cruel and malicious intentions. Instead, Swift uses satire as a way to cast the current issues and events in a different light to reveal the idiocy. For example, in Gulliver’s Travels, the endless wars and debates between the Big-Endians and the Little-Endians is Swift’s way of portraying European history as arbitrary and meaningless disagreements. Swift could be referring to England and France, Protestants and Catholics, or the Whigs and Tories. What he is specifically referring to is irrelevant. Swift believes that it is unreasonable to legislate what to believe or what not to believe. Regardless, Swift’s satire is never mean-spirited, but is alway well expressed. …show more content…
In eighteenth century Europe, politics, religion, and national identity were treated as sacred. Swift was particularly irritated by the politicians of his time. He pokes fun at them in Gulliver’s Travels, implying that to earn financial gain the Lilliputian officials and politicians literally have to walk on a rope and jump through hoops. In addition, Swift uses the size of the Lilliputians and their government to point back towards the English government. Swift goes to considerable lengths to describe the rules that the Lilliputians set for Gulliver. Swift uses satire to compare the Lilliputians with the arrogance of Europe’s government and superiority. Swift points out that the arrogance of man goes hand in hand with illogical political