In literature, writers apply the technique of satire in criticizing and exposing corruption and foolishness in an individual, a group in society, or entire society (Ugolini 1). In the technique, the writers make use of irony, humor, ridicule, and exaggeration to convince the people engaging in unethical and immoral things to leave them and change their way of reasoning. In satire, writers make normal things appear abnormal and abnormal things appear normal as they attempt to ridicule people’s attitude to some issues (LeBoeuf 3). In “A Modest Proposal” by Swift, satire is used in exposing, mocking, and discouraging the rival attitude existing between the Irish and English Communities, where the English oppress the Irish while the English view the Irish as a burden to them. In Du Bois’ “A Modest Proposal,” the author uses satire to expose and ridicule the racism met on African Americans by the majority white race. Both works by Swift and Du Bois apply satire pleading to communities to stop some immoral attitudes and practices, but the text by Swift utilizes satire better than Du Bois’ test because it makes better use of humor and exaggeration, which appeals to the reader’s attention in a more effective way.
The use of satire is very helpful in enabling the author to emphasize a moral lesson about societal issues. Through satire, authors are able to apply criticism and aggression against of some actions of an abusive section of society and ironically compare good things with good ones (Ugolini 2). In both Swift’s and Du Bois’ works, “A Modest Proposal” and “A Mild Suggestion” respectively, the authors ironically call society to reason and act in a fair manner. They both moderately or mildly propose ways in which society can overcome major political and economic challenges by suggesting methods that are logically insensible, but make a lot of sense when applied in the opposite way.
In an attempt to emphasize that the rich social group should treat the disadvantaged from Ireland in a moral way, Swift suggests that the Irish people should give up their children to the rich people in England so that the English land owners can have some delicious meal to eat. In the same process, he explains that the poor people from Ireland would greatly benefit from the transaction because the Irish families would save a lot of their expenses as they would no longer have many stomachs to feed. In the same way, Du Bois suggests an unreasonable to the problems facing black Americans in the early 19th century. He suggests that people in America can solve the problem of both the whites and the colored people by killing all the African Americans so that they problem would end while the burden on the whites would be removed. This way, the two authors are able to criticize society in aggression by ironically emphasizing the need by all groups in society to look at each other’s needs unselfishly (LeBoeuf 2).
Writers make use of satire in attempt to correct some social and political organization structure in society by mockingly forcing the reader to reason with him or her on the need to reform (Ugolini 3). In a mocking way, authors can take the reader through a reasoning process that allows them to see evils in the way they organize society. In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift take the learner through a reasoning process, where he even calculates the total benefit which both Irish and English families stand to benefit if they allow turning the Irish children into food. He calculates that, by selling at least 100,000 children from Ireland, the problem of unemployment and overpopulation would greatly be dealt with. He mockingly reasons that the Irish economy would soon flourish while England would also socially benefit by avoiding the problems brought to them by the Irish people.
In “A mild suggestion,” Du Bois also forces the reader to reason in the same way by arguing that the problem of overpopulation would largely be solved if African Americans are killed. In the two books, the authors are forcing the reader to reason in a certain way in which the organization of society is mocked. Authors make use of satire to explain that the way society reasons in terms of social groups such as race, ethnicity, or nationality do not measure up m(LeBoeuf, 12). By explaining that the population is made happy by a cruel action, the author entices the readers to push for reformation in the political and social set up.
A major reason why authors do not just write moral lessons and facts directly but instead make use of satire to deliver their message is to look for a more effective way dealing with pretense and hypocrisy. Pretenders cannot embrace the facts they are being offered and cannot be encouraged to virtue when they are directly provided with reasonable facts (LeBoeuf 12). Most people who perpetrate discrimination and oppression of other social classes in society only feel justified of doing their evil and look at things from their own point of view. Such people display indignation and anger when they are directly confronted with facts because they already possess the required virtues. They continue with their immoral actions and stereotypes in the same manner whenever someone tells them that they are doing the wrong thing. Using satire can be a more effective way of exposing their hypocrisy because it exposes the real meaning of the actions they choose to engage in.
By claiming in his writing that the English land owners and Irish people are doing the right thing when they live in the divisive way they do, and by asserting that it would even be better to do it with more zeal, Swift is attempting to expose the hypocrisy of the entire community. In his book, Du Bois also applies the same strategy of exposing the negative stereotypes against colored people by telling them that they are doing the right thing instead of directly discouraging them. Such a move is a more effective way making the obstinate racists can correct themselves by knowing the real nature of the actions they are carrying out (Ugolini 3). The encouragement that he ironically give them to continue doing unfair things with more magnitude to the African Americans forces them to sympathize with them as humans who need empathy this, thus encouraging them to stop their pride.
Another reason why writers make use of satire to communicate ideas instead of merely criticizing the undesirable aspects they find in society is to cause some exaggeration of the problems they find in society so that they can convince people to leave some unethical actions and attitudes (LeBoeuf 12). By exaggerating the effects of vices in society, writers are able to invoke the emotions both sides of a divided society to make them see the need to stop the divisions they have (LeBoeuf 12). Even if the two books by Swift and Du Bois make use of exaggeration in the satire they apply, Swifts work has more effective exaggeration than Du Bois’ work. The exaggeration effect in Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” is made quite effective by the fact that it brings out a suggestion that is not existent in society, which is more unreal than the one found in Du Bois’ “A Mild Suggestion.” This is because in Du Bois’ work, the suggestion of selling the children to the English Land owners was something that was taking place and could not be emerged. But it was a challenging way of convincing the warring sides have empathy for each other and be more sympathetic to the Irish people who were more oppressed.
The exaggeration effect was also made more effect by portraying the children as the victims of the division, which makes it easier to stress the effects of the bias that the English had against the Irish. Although Du Bois also applies the satire component of exaggeration in his work, “A mild Suggestion,” it does not have as strong effect as that brought out by Swift’s work. This is because the exaggeration in Du Bois’ work is dealing with things that are already happening even if they do not happen with the magnitude that he suggests. Although the suggestion of killing all the blacks is not the exact thing that was happening in American society in his contemporary time, there were already cases of killings of blacks in the country. Therefore, the exaggeration effect does not come out as effectively as in Swift’s book.
Writers also make use of satire instead of direct narratives in their work in order to have a humorous effect in their work (Ugolini 1). By employing humor in their literature work, writer manages to make the reader contemplate his message more logically and make his work more interesting. It does not only call on society to reason but it also makes them more attentive to their message and creates an appeal (Ugolini 3). The work by Swift has a more humorous satire than that of Du Bois. This is because the way he analyzes the problems between the English and Irish communities and the calculations and solutions he offers mixes practical and impractical things to win the attention and interest of the communities. By proposing that families sell their children and the rich community from England to make delicious meals from the children, he places humor in his work, which is a more important aspect of satirical humor than the one applied by Du Bois when he suggests that the blacks will be happy when they are all killed.
In conclusion, both texts by Swift and Du Bois considerably make use of satire to enable the writers to emphasize moral lessons on important issues in society. The two authors choose to apply irony, ridicule, exaggeration, and humor to expose and discourage some evils in society instead of using direct narratives. Both of them effectively use satire to speak to individuals who use hypocrisy and pretense to justify their unethical practices. Swift ironically advises that the conversion of Irish children into sellable meat would offer solutions for society while Du Bois ironically suggest that the killing of African American can overcome problems like unemployment and overcrowding. But Swift’s use of satire is more effective than that of Du Bois because it makes better use of exaggeration and humor.
References
LeBoeuf, Megan. “The power of ridicule: An analysis of satire.” Senior Honors Projects (2007): 1-45.
Ugolini, Paola. “Satire.” The State University of New York (2016). Retrieved from; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308861073_Satire