Absolutely! Swift ridicules humanity for being senselessly violent toward one another: consider the conflict between the Big Endians and Little Endians in Lilliput. They fight over which side of the egg to crack, and thousands of people have died as a result of this conflict. Swift thus satirizes the Catholic-Protestant conflict in England, where people killed each other over religious beliefs that literally had no impact on what other people could believe, just like one...
Absolutely! Swift ridicules humanity for being senselessly violent toward one another: consider the conflict between the Big Endians and Little Endians in Lilliput. They fight over which side of the egg to crack, and thousands of people have died as a result of this conflict. Swift thus satirizes the Catholic-Protestant conflict in England, where people killed each other over religious beliefs that literally had no impact on what other people could believe, just like one person breaking their egg on the small end has absolutely no effect on the life of someone who wants to crack the big end. These are senseless conflicts over basic ways of life.
Further, Swift points out our greed, our violence, our misplaced priorities; he shows us at our most base when he creates the Yahoos, creatures who are incredibly greedy and terribly violent, who would hoard food from their peers when there is plenty to go around. Gulliver's conversation with the king of Brobdingnag shows how much emphasis we put on developing our weapons instead of something constructive and useful. Again and again, Swift points out our worst qualities, and he is right every time.
No comments:
Post a Comment