Jonathan Swift is considered one of the best writers of satire. Gulliver’s Travels is an adventure story, but it is also a satire because it gives an exaggerated view of the world in order to show the problems of the world. Swift uses the Lilliputians to show us human nature from a distance so that we can then reflect on the ridiculous aspects of our own culture.
Examples of Satire in Gulliver’s Travels:
· The Lilliputians are very prideful, but they are tiny, so their pride seems ridiculous.
· People who want government jobs do rope acrobatics to show their ability to jump and contort themselves to please the Emperor (suck up).
· Lilliput and Blefuscu are at war over which end of the egg to crack. This represents the ridiculousness of having wars over religion, Protestant vs. Catholic.
Write a diary entry in which Gulliver visits a strange land that has some crazy characteristic of our modern world. Pick some aspect of our society that is ridiculous, and imagine a world where that aspect is exaggerated. Here are some ideas:
Going into debt to pay for college so that you can earn more money
Strife between people over religion, politics, music tastes, sexual orientation, etc. The crazy things we do to be healthy/lose weight
Consumerism regarding clothes/shoes, cars, houses, phones
Pick one of these or think of your own idea then write a diary entry (approximately 200 words) telling about a land where people do the thing in an extreme way so that it is really ridiculous.