Satire is “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices.” Satire is used particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. Authors often use satire in the form of a joke or to incorporate humor into a piece of writing. “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathon Swift and “There Was Once” by Margaret Atwood both target controversial issues in society through the form of satire.  

Jonathon Swift is addressing the issues of overpopulation and poverty in society. The author addresses the two issues of overpopulation and poverty in society early on in the text. Swift claims, “These mothers instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ their time in strolling to beg for their helpless infants.” (Swift). Swift is expressing his blunt opinion that mothers are not able to work and make money in society for their families. The reason for this poverty in Swifts opinion, is due to having too many children. This is a very blunt and straightforward claim made from Swift that could directly offend anyone reading who has a differing view on the issues. Due to the controversial issues that Swift is addressing, satire can be used to lighten the mood to a more comical tone and still express his opinions regarding society.

 Swift makes claims regarding the issues of overpopulation and poverty through satire in order to not offend his audience with differing viewpoints. The topics regarding overpopulation and poverty in society are very controversial as many people express colliding viewpoints on the issues. Swift demonstrates an element of satire regarding overpopulation in society, Swift claims “A young healthy child, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled” (Swift). In this quote, Swift is demonstrating elements of irony or mockery while referring to eating children as pieces of meat due to increased poverty levels, and overpopulation in society. Although we know that Swift does not actually want to eat infants to solve this societal problem. The author is succeeding at incorporating humor to the controversial topics in society. Swift is also allowing for the audience to take time to think of different ways, that do not involve eating children to solve problems regarding overpopulation and poverty.

 Swift’s satirizes human overreaction to social and economic situations in society. 

The idea that Swift introduces in his writing of using children as food to solve current issues in society is not an actual “modest proposal”. This is a clearly is a preposterous proposition. The title “A modest proposal” is merely a use of irony from the author. I think that Swift’s approach to the writing of “A Modest Proposal” was very well executed. Swift made a preposterous solution to a present day controversial problem, and ironically defined this proposal as “modest” after it clearly was not. Swift’s overall approach for the writing was to satirize the way that human’s react to social and economic problems in society. Humans tend to overreact and make unrealistic propositions to issues. Swift’s use of irony and satire in “A Modest Proposal” was directed to raise awareness to the way that humans handle problems in life. 

Margaret Atwood in her writing “There was once”, is addressing the issues concerning gender stereotypes in society. Atwood is attempting to tell a story to another character. The character is continually interrupted and scorned by another character overanalyzing and addressing the gender stereotypes present in almost everything that she says. This prevents her from reading past the first sentence of the story. An argument begins to arise in the story between the two characters. In our present day society, as our world continues to evolve and equal treatment of all types of people is commonly protested. Stereotypes are a very common thing for all different groups of people. The author of this writing directly addresses the presence of gender stereotypes in our present day society. The personal conversation between the two characters in the piece of writing accurately demonstrates how stereotyping can occur in our present day society.

Atwood uses irony to address the presence of gender stereotypes that are addressed with the idea of beauty in the story. “Stop right there, I think we can cut the beautiful, don’t you? Women these days have to deal with too many intimidating physical role models as it is, what with those bimbos in the ads. Can’t you make her well more average?” (Atwood). The claims that the character makes are with the intention to reduce stereotypes against women in the story. Ironically, a stereotype concerning beauty is introduced by the same character. The author is revealing the issues concerning gender stereotypes in society that are commonly overlooked.  The authors strong use of irony to the root of stereotypes in this piece of writing can help us as humans view stereotyping in society in a different way. 

Atwood makes claims regarding female stereotypes through satire. This is a much more modern piece of literature, making the satire familiar from current language and more familiar social cues throughout the piece of writing from the author. Gender stereotypes are a very important issue in our present day society, it also a very controversial and sensitive topic for many people to identify and be comfortable discussing. I think that Atwood chose the genre of Satire for her piece of writing to introduce a more comedic tone to the piece of writing.  Also I think that she chose the genre of satire for her piece of writing because it can help people to see the underlying issues in our society through the authors use of irony and mockery of the current gender stereotypes.  I think that this was a very clever way to perhaps gain perspective from a new audience or to help gain awareness on this worldwide issue during this present time in society. Overall, I think that the authors use of irony and mockery from the role play of giving women the voice helped to give a modern spin on the piece of writing and also was a great way to attract the reader’s attention. The overall approach from Atwood was to directly satirize the way that humans can overanalyze and become over sensitive to things such as stereotypes in society. The overall irony lied in the fact that the character in the story who knew the most about gender stereotyping and was trying to abolish them from the story, was in fact the one who was creating them and prevented the story from being told. 

Swift and Atwood both share the common theme of using the genre of satire to target controversial issues in society. Although one story focused on the socioeconomic issues of society and the other story regarding social issues, we are still able to find a common theme in the authors use of satire. Also, the two authors were both satirizing human behavior or certain human decision making. The overall approach of the two writers were highlighted through irony in the story that could easily be related into real life. I think that the controversial topics played a significant role in the choice of satire from the authors, since offending the audience could have occurred from the blunt opinion expressed by the author. Also the use of satire in the two stories made them much more entertaining to the reader. 

The use of satire by the two authors allows for us as humans to learn more about ourselves and the behaviors that can have a negative effect to the way that situations are handled. We can always remember the social issues that the authors addressed in their writing and how through irony we can pinpoint the satirized human behaviors to society as a whole. 
