Courage is the ability to do things or something that seems difficult or dangerous. Courage allows humans to fight the mental strength to face fears and make impossible choices. Human beings have the moral strength to face anything, venture, or persevere through any hardships in life. The book a Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift and George Orwell Shooting an Elephant demonstrate the themes of courage through the characters, setting, and plot.
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift explores the sad fate of the poverty-stricken Irish who had spent most of their time trying to feed their large families. Swift suggests that Irish families should fatten their children and sell them to rich English landowners to end the poverty that the Irish people faced. Different characters demonstrate actions of courage in their decision-making and life. As the title of the essay suggests, “A Modest Proposal Swift, gives an ironic proposal where he proposes that the people of Ireland should sell their children as food as they had become a burden to feed. This idea is outrageous but acts as a solution to the Irish people’s problems.
Instances of courage are presented in the essay, where Swift sees the challenges that the Irish people are going through. He decides to come up with a proposal that requires courage to suggest. Swift found a way to draw the people’s attention to the poor conditions of the people of Ireland and what had to be done for a change to be established. Swift mentions in the essay,” Ican think of no one objection that will possibly be raised against this proposal” (pg 217-218). Swift dared to address the problems affecting the people, and he thought that the Irish people selling their children to pay rent and taxes was a good idea. Swift sees the challenges that the people were going through at that time, where the maintenance of a hundred thousand children from two years old would be fifty thousand pounds per annum. By selling the children, there would be a great fortune to the kingdom, and the money would circulate among themselves and get rid of the charge of maintaining them after the first year.
Through satire, Siwft indirectly introduces other objections to fixing Ireland, such as the citizens that left Ireland. Through courage, Swift raises concern about the problems affecting the Ireland Nation. Fattening children and feeding them to the rich represents Ireland’s social injustice; the rich are prioritized, while the poor appear to be blamed for their position and lack of compassion. Swift’s final argument contrasts cannibalism with human corruption. Eating each other would ruin the nation, a fictional scenario solution to solve inhumanity issues. This proposal explains how the country is consuming itself. This writing is primarily concerned with Ireland’s social and political problems. Swift shows courage through how he expresses himself and the challenges the Irish people face. ” After all, I am not so violently bent upon my own opinion as to reject any offer proposed by wise men, which shall be found equally innocent, cheap, easy, and effectual. But before something of that kind shall be advanced in contradiction to my scheme, and offering a better.” (Swift pg. 210-211) Many people questioned how, even if his idea of harvesting young children was not literal, a person could begin to come up with such detailed information on doing so. In one of his lines, Swift wrote, “Those who are thriftier may flay the carcass, the skin of which, artificially dressed, will make admirable gloves for ladies and summer boots for a fine gentleman” (Swift, pg.744).
“Shooting an elephant” is an essay by George Orwell that explains his life as a young policeman in Burma, which was part of the British Empire at that time. The essay explores the paradoxical behavior of Europeans who had power over their colonial subjects. The essay shows the author’s courage, journey, and experiences as a soldier. The essay uses symbolism, such as the elephant and the rifle, to represent the British oppressive power over the people of Burma. He uses symbolism to bring out the people’s ideas and qualities, showing his courage to address the real problem that was affecting the people of Burma. The essay discusses how the author shot at an elephant that had caused havoc, destroyed crops and killed a cow. He takes a rifle and rides on his horse to go and see what he can do about the situation. The theme of courage is expounded more in the essay, especially during an elephant scene shooting.
In ‘Shooting an Elephant, Orwell, the police officer, is going through a tough time because people in the area where he resides hate Europeans. Orwell’s courage is demonstrated when he is faced with a difficult situation where he is told that an elephant has gone on a rampage and is asked to deal with the situation. When he finds it, he carries a rifle, finds that the elephant’s rampage has ended, and is peacefully eating grass. “He took not the slightest notice of the crowd’s approach. He was tearing up bunches of grass, beating them against his knees to clean them and stuffing them into his mouth” (Orwell, 142). Orwell faced a crisis on whether to leave the elephant as it was peacefully eating grass despite whatever destruction it had caused. Orwell felt he had an obligation to shoot the elephant because of what he felt was what was expected of him. “ It is a serious matter to shoot a working elephant—it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery—and one ought not to do it if it can be avoided” (Orwell, 140). The author’s courage when he shoots the elephants as the large crowd of Burma is observing and amidst the fighting consciousness of whether to shoot the elephant. The author took the courage to do what was right and to avoid looking like a fool as he was a soldier and had to do what was right even though deep down he did not want to shoot the elephant.
Orwell uses the incident of killing the elephant to demonstrate the real nature of imperialism. The author’s courage is demonstrated in how he presents the main issue affecting the people of Burma, who hated the Europeans. While he was working as a police officer, he was hated by the majority of the people in Burma. Orwell was upset by how the people thought of them as by-products of imperialism. Orwell uses the essay to show that imperialism is still alive and well; it is formidable and capable of destroying almost anything that stands in its way. However, even a minor blow can have a significant impact on it. If an individual dares to start a rebellion against imperialism, it will fail quickly. The first shot may not completely demolish imperialism, but it will shock the British. They will be panicked and unable to fight back after a short period—in a matter of seconds. It will then collapse and die, just like the elephant. It will not have the energy to stand up and fight the rebel, no matter how much it wants to. Orwell wishes to illustrate that if a person is courageous enough to fight against imperialism, it will not take long to destroy imperialism.
In a nutshell, the essay A Modest Proposal and Shooting an Elephant demonstrates the courage presented by the authors to bring the critical issue faced by the people in both Burma and Ireland. The two essays have a common thing where the authors are fighting to address the issues: Burma suffered from imperialism while the Irish people suffered from poverty. “Shooting an Elephant” and “A Modest Proposal” are two essays in which Orwell expresses his feelings directly, whereas Swift expresses them with a cold and unsympathetic attitude. The authors demonstrate their courage when faced with difficult issues.
Works Cited
Swift, Jonathan. “a modest proposal.” Literature. The Human Experience: Reading and Writing 13th edition, edited by Richard Abcarian, Marvin Klotz, and Samuel Cohen, Bedford/ST. Martin’s, 2016, p.744
Orwell, George. “Shooting an elephant.” Literature. The Human Experience: Reading and Writing 13th edition, edited by Richard Abcarian, Marvin Klotz, and Samuel Cohen, Bedford/ST. Martin’s, 2016, p.744
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