Comapring Naivete and Satire in Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels and

naiveness and Satire in Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels and Voltaires Candide A child has the ability to make the close critical and objective observation on society and the behavior of man. How is this feasible? A child has yet to mature and lacks proper education and experience. However, it is for this truly reason that a child would make the perfect social scientist his or her naivete may provide an excellent means of objective reflection and most often satire. A childs curious nature and hunger for companionship would bring about an unbiased questioning of social structures, minus the brainwash of these very institutions, and his or her vulnerability would expose any societal dangers present. This child-like scientist would regain the truth as it is. This same premise may be apply to literary works. A naive character or narrator may be used as a child-like scientist, who reveals social truths to the audience through his or her naivete. As Maurois has n oted, in writing about Candide, by Voltaire, It was overbold of apprenticeship, that is, the shaping of an adolescents ideas by rude contact with the universe (101). Jonathan Swift in any case takes this approach in his work Gullivers Travels, where Gulliver, the main character, provides a naive exhibit of reference. The satires Gullivers Travels, by Jonathan Swift, and Candide, by Voltaire, both make use of naivete to take on satirical attacks on society. In both works, litotes understatements are make of extremely absurd situations, which further illuminates the ridiculous nature of a situation. Characters in each novel are made vulnerable by their too trusting natures. This is taken advantage of, and these characters are left e... ... Ideas. New York D Appleton and lodge, 1929. * Introduction to Gullivers Travels. Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Major Authors. Ed. M.H. Abrhams et al. Sixth ed. New York W. W. Norton and Company, 1995. * Lawler, J ohn. The Evolution of Gullivers Character. Norton tiny Editions. * Maurois, Andre. Voltaire. New York D. Appleton and Company, 1932. * Mylne, Vivienne. The Eighteenth-Century French Novel. Manchester University of Manchester Press, 1965. * Pasco, Allan H. Novel Configurations A Study of French Fiction. Birmingham Summa Publications, 1987. * Quintana, Ricardo authority as Satirical Method. Norton Critical Editions Jonathan Swift Gullivers Travels. Ed. Robert A Greenberg. New York W. W. Norton and Company Inc., 1961. * Van Doren, Carl. Swift .New York The Viking Press, 1930.