1. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

2. Jonathan Swift

3. The Life of Jonathan Swift
He was born in Ireland in 1667
He graduated from Trinity College in Ireland in 1686
He got a Master’s degree from Oxford College in England in 1692
He became a priest in the Anglican Church of England in 1695
Most people in this time could not read or write

4. He received a doctorate degree in religious studies in 1702
He became interested in English politics and was a good debater
He became active in politics and worked for a government official as a secretary
He saw a lot of things in the way the wealthy, educated people treated the poor and uneducated that he did not like
He wanted to show the wealthy how they really looked to others
He wanted to see change in government policies

5. Satire
Jonathan Swift is most famous for his style of writing called satire
Satire is a written composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn and derision…..WHAT?????
In other words, he wrote stories that made fun of the bad things that people do and the way they act to make them look ridiculous and silly in order to try to get them to change the way they live and act toward others (much better!)

6. Why Use Satire?
The early 1700’s were a time when there was a great demand for social, political and economic change in England and Ireland
At this time and place there was no such thing as freedom of speech and freedom of the press
If an author was not careful, he could be jailed, charged with treason, and not be able to print his stories (remember the king was in charge)
Using satire, Jonathan Swift was able to tell stories about make believe people and places when he was really making fun of English government and political figures

7. Why Did Satire Work for Jonathan Swift?
Laughter and ridicule are two powerful tools for social changes
Satire can show and criticize wrongdoings, abuses and unfair practices
If anyone tried to accuse Swift of treason, he could say that his stories were just pretend fairy tales

8. Jonathan Swift Today
Swift was very good at pointing out greed, pride, poverty, poor government and social injustices
His writings about the way people can feel and act are just as true today as when he wrote in the 1700’s

9. Swift Stories with Satire
2 of his most famous works are:
A Modest Proposal (written in 1729) and Gulliver’s Travels (written in 1726)
You will read A Modest Proposal your senior year in English 4.
Gulliver’s Travels, the novel that we are about to read, uses 2 kinds of satire

10. Gulliver’s Travels Satire #1
The story is about an English doctor named Lemuel Gulliver
He takes 4 voyages, or trips, in a ship
In the 1700’s, books about travel were very popular to read (sort of like how vampire books like Twilight are popular today)
Gulliver’s Travels is written like the popular travel books of the time as a way of making fun of the genre, or kind, of books
Jonathan Swift thought that people should spend more time thinking of ways to solve the problems where they lived than on reading books about other places
Gulliver’s Travels is a parody of the genre of “travel narrative”
During the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these tales of voyages of exploration and colonial adventure were extremely popular:

11. Gulliver’s Travels Satire #2
The name Gulliver suggests the word gullible. This may suggest that the character is too easily tricked or will believe anything
The word travel means to take a trip. This suggests that Gulliver may make a trip where he sees or learns something new

12. Gulliver’s Travels Theme
This novel explores the world of men and what it means to be human
Remember that the person writing the story, Jonathan Swift, was a man who saw wrongs in government and people, and he wanted to make changes in the actions of both

13. Quick Facts Setting- traveling to different islands by ship
Gulliver- narrator, first person, and protagonist of the story
Antagonists- various characters from the different islands
Themes
1. what is better for rules of behavior; being physically stronger or morally correct
2. Individual rights vs. society
3. Humans are not meant to understand everything
Tone- use of irony and satire