Satire In Jonathan Swift, Jon Stewart, And Mark Twain

Satire has been a major part of history. It has helped to make changes that would otherwise have never happened. The definition of satire is: "A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit" (Dictionary.com). We can see all different kinds of satire through the ages. Classical satire, political satire, modern satire and even cruel satire are preset in our world today. A few famous satirists are Jonathan Swift, Jon Stewart, and Mark Twain and are prime examples of the different ages of satire. Jonathan Swift was an Irishman who wrote satire about the failing condition of his nation. In the time of Swift, his nation was suffering from poverty, famine and disease, all of which, he said, could be prevented. In his satire titled, "A Modest Proposal", Swift explains how
Mark Twain was very famous for his numerous books that satirized the way Americans live. A few examples of his books are Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper and A Dog's Tale. His main examples of satire are seen in his later years after he has already written a majority of his books (Add twain wiki source here). Twain used real life events in many of his books, exaggerated of course, but real none the less. He uses examples from his life to shape his books into tools of satire as he talks about the different problems that America was facing during his time. One major issue at the time was the mistreatment of slaves in the South even after the Emancipation Proclamation and the amendments passed to ensure the rights of African-Americans. This can all be seen in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, where the slave Jim is seen to be a monster by everyone they meet, but Huck, being the innocent that he was, sees Jim as just another person, a friend. This is directly satirizing the south's attitude and behavior towards their fellow men, colored as they may