Most things in life are labeled with stereotypes, or things that automatically come to mind when you think of them or hear the name or word. Literature, and more specifically genres of literature, are not exempt from this and all have certain characteristics that are popular to each individual genre. Just because two pieces are of the same genre, however, does not mean that every component or detail will be exactly the same. Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal and Wendy Molyneux’s I Am Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece are almost a perfect representation of how authors can follow the common guidelines of their literary piece while at the same time maintaining their uniqueness and individuality. 

Immediately from the beginning of Swift’s A Modest Proposal, the reader can get sense of his satirical style of writing for this piece.  A note before he starts the first paragraph states “For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick” ( 514). This makes it evident what writing style the author will be using right away. The main idea of this piece is Swift stating to the people of Ireland that, due to the financial state of the country in the eighteenth century and the excess of small children belonging to poor families, they should sell the children as well as use them for food and their skins for gloves. That being said, it is easy to decide that the audience is the people of Ireland and the reason behind the piece is economic issues. Thoughts such as Swift’s were not very popular in his time period, causing him to publish his writing under a pseudonym so nobody would know that it was him. 

In I Am Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece, Molyneux takes a different approach to her narrative style. She decided to make the narrator a two-dimensional character, also known as a caricature, which takes part in the stereotypical properties of her satirical writing. As opposed to Swift’s economic purpose for his writing, it is evident that Molyneux decided to write this paper in response to social issues. The reader can come to the conclusion that the author is tired of the stereotypical ideas of women. These include all women liking Grey’s Anatomy, cats, famous men that they could never realistically be with (more specifically John Stamos), the idea that women need to cook for men, and that they cry all the time, along with the idea that women  be funny, all of which are included in this piece. Molyneux is also writing in a more modern time period whereas A Modest Proposal was published in the seventeen hundreds, making it a little easier for the reader to relate. Overall, the main purpose and audience for both of these pieces tend to be completely different, with a change in time period being a main cause. 

In comparing both of these writings, one will find that, due to the satire present in each, there are many similar components. One thing that is interesting about them however is that even though the components are the same, the breakdown of said components differ. For example, both pieces were prompted by what was a big issue in each author’s world. Swift’s purpose just happened to be about the absurd conditions in Ireland for its citizens while Molyneux was attempting to erase, what she believes to be, the false accusations of women. When put side by side, I Am Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece and A Modest Proposal  both show the traditional characteristics of satirical writing while still differing and leaving the reader with an interesting piece of work.
