Comparative Analysis of Swift's a Modest Proposal and Voltaire’s Candide

The English Enlightenment seemed to be one of the first intellectual movements that dominated the era. Many people started to distrust God and believe rationality came from within and not from following God’s will. Science was important during this era; saying that reason is the way to understand the world. Humans deemed to be rational people, therefore their ways are the only way to observe and understand the unknown. Jonathan Swift's “A Modest Proposal” and Francois-Marie Arouet, also known as Voltaire, “Candide” both narrate extreme situations and provide human reasoning to solve the problems. Ultimately revealing that even though there are differences between social classes, everyone deals with the same issues and if they are not resolved, happiness will vacate.

Jonathan Swift elaborates on the increasing poverty issues in Ireland. He gives a proposal saying, “That at a year old, children be offered in sale to the persons of quality and fortune, through the kingdom, always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump, and fat for a good'. The remaining of the children not needed for food, people can keep for themselves. The poor then will have money to spend on necessities and the rich will now have food. He strays away from how it would feel to eat little children and finds the rationality behind it because the enlightenment is all about reason no emotion. Eating the fat, little children will introduce a new food source for those who are starving and stimulates the economy. It seems like a win-win situation, however, it was vulgar and distasteful. People assumed he was crazy because who would propose something so awful. Swift made sure to use something so extravagant that made people listen. Reason without emotion was ridiculous. Reasoning wise, the proposal made sense, but no one had it in them to hurt children to save the country. Swift drew society to him to ridicule this movement and bring attention to the poverty problem. This proposal brought society together to degrade Swift but also allowing them to see the real issues that they all faced.

Voltaire expresses a better outlook for the enlightenment in his episodic structured novel, he tells a story of a young man, Candide, and his journey. Candide experiences many setbacks but steadily moves forward. Candide experiences many hardships in his journey, including death, battles, and earthquakes. Voltaire tries to show that no matter what happens in the world, the world they live in now is the best of both possible worlds. Candide experiences so many hardships, that all of society has experienced at least once, but no matter what you go through, be strong and overcome adversity. Voltaire expressed optimism throughout the novel, looking for the better in situations. Candide finally arrives at a beautiful garden in the end and remembers something that Pangloss would tell him, “All events are linked together in the best possible worlds...you wouldn’t be sitting here eating candied citron and pistachios”. All events in life happen for a reason, you cannot move on to happiness and better, unless you have experienced the bad. Just because bad things happen does not mean you should sit and do nothing, get up and prove yourself wrong. All the characters in the novel experienced the bad that happened and some lived to the happiness in the end because they fought for their lives and proved themselves wrong. They did not give up when things got rough, they believed happiness would eventually come.

Voltaire satirically used God and optimism to bring society together to become one. He laughs at having organized religion and having one sole person teach about God almighty. He believed in the separation of church and state. One should be able to have knowledge of whatever they believe in, and condemning others because they believe in a different religion is not okay. He expressed freedom in his novel; the freedom of choices and decisions to make oneself happy.

Jonathan Swift and Voltaire both expressed different thoughts about human reasoning and the distrust of God. They both use satirical motives to discuss important societal issues. Although they are in different countries, poverty and hopelessness still exist. Both writers expose the issues in their societies but use humor to resolve the issues. They brought attention to human reasoning sometimes being too inhumane if emotions are not involved.