Eric Yeh Julie Pesano Sp 23 EWRT 1B 6/19/2023 Literature: The Tool for Criticism and Change Historically, literature has long been considered a vessel, a formidable tool for social criticism. This tool offers writers a means to address and challenge the significant atrocities, injustices, and oppression of the respective societies of their time. The literary works "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift, "Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr., and "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell all employ symbols and motifs to criticize the contrasting oppression towards society. The period of the 18th century was a time of significant transformation, known as the Age of Enlightenment. Jonathan Swift witnessed the historical advancements in scientific reasoning and the idealism that challenged the conventional traditionalist authority—the period faced political turmoil, alongside power struggles between political and religious conflicts, as well as colonial expansion. Swift's life oversaw these events, and ultimately shaped his views and fuelled his satire, and he became acutely aware of the injustices inflicted upon his homeland by the English. This awareness is seen through his satire in "A Modest Proposal." “Satire is traditionally thought of as a literary mode with a moral purpose; the satirist writes ‘with a sense of moral vocation and with a concern for the public interest.’ It is clear that satires often address the same sorts of particular moral problems that papers in applied ethics do.” (Diehl) The satire intended to expose injustice and oppression. “Satires are works of fiction, but they are also veiled commentary on some aspect of the real world … to succeed in its satirical aims, especially when the target is a particular or state of affairs, a satire must establish a recognizable relationship between that which is doing the satirizing and that which is being satirized, that is, between fiction and target.” (Diehl) The use of satire and irony was successfully employed by Swift to create the relationship to highlight the absurdity of the reality. The relationship drawn brought attention to the injustice of the circumstances, and questioned the concepts of conformity versus rebellion to the reader's morals. Swift proposed that the poor and malnourished Irish should sell their very own children as food for the wealthy English as a satirical means of both alleviating poverty and providing a source of income. "A young healthy child well nursed is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout" (Swift). Swift aimed to use these dark, horrific visual motifs to shock the reader out of conformity and to confront the reality of the situation instead, and the severity of the oppression and suffering of the Irish. “Swift's Proposal is ultimately understandable as satire because of the careful parallels that Swift constructs between his fictional projector and the existing discourse on the Irish situation, in keeping with the usual tactics of satiric parody.” (Diehl) The exaggerated scenario and use of parody given mirrors the inhumanity and exploitatios present during Swift’s time. Similarly, 1963 saw a period of power struggles and political turmoil. Racial segregation and systemic oppression were present alongside the rebellion through civil rights activism, and Martin Luther King Jr addressed this through his "Letter from Birmingham Jail." The Birmingham Campaign, a nonviolent protest led by King, aimed to challenge and end segregation in the setting of an exceptionally racially divided city. "For years now, I have heard the word 'Wait!'...This 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.'" (King). King uses the symbol of time to criticize the concept of waiting for justice. King uses time as a concept to argue for the urgency of moving away from conformity and complacency and toward peaceful rebellion against racial oppression and injustice. King sees time as something not to be wasted and should not be used as justification for delaying immediate action upon the systemic oppression present in his time. "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue." (King, 1963). King criticized the white religious leaders and the moderate white man who criticized \ the protests. These critics advocated for gradual change rather than immediate action. “Yet his logic throughout the Letter is unanswerable. In a brilliant paragraph he answers the charge that his actions ‘precipitate violence’: he challenges the logic of the clergymen and in a series of increasingly dramatic, grammatically parallel rhetorical questions, he reveals that those who make direct action necessary are guilty of precipitating violence:” (Mott) King’s strong writing helped challenge the ensuing politcal struggle, and advocate for nonviolence in a very intelligent counterarguement and comparison. King rebutted with the motif of nonviolent direct action and argued that peaceful protest, immediate action, and civil disobedience would be the catalyst for social change and action that was needed to challenge not only the critics but the nation as a whole on their moral standing and conformity. The early 20th century saw similar systemic oppression. The political turmoil faced head-on by the suffrage movement and the fight for women's rights. Susan Glaspell was influenced and fueled by the historical events of this era, as she was an active participant in the feminist movement. Glaspell drew from her experiences and observations of gender inequality and utilized symbols within “Trifles” to highlight the oppression and injustices women in early 20th-century America faced. "She—come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself—real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and—fluttery. How—she—did—change." (Glaspell). The birdcage serves as a metaphor for the imprisonment of women’s rights and freedom of speech. The bird’s death symbolized the death of Minnie Wright’s freedom due to societal norms and oppressive expectations of women of the era. The quilt that Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale discover while investigating Minnie's home was utilized as a symbol of Minnie’s life, and how the knots represented slow deformations mirroring emotional turmoil and hardship caused by societal oppression. These symbols served as Glaspell's literary tool to critique societal norms and expectations of women. “Glaspell's need to change the ending of the trial, to empower women to rectify an unjust situation, is both a criticism of the legal system and an indictment of the social and romantic conventions of society. The danger to women is not only in the legal system but also for those who do not run afoul of the law, in the very structure of marriage.” (Alkalay-Gut) The analysis and evaluation given align well with Glasepll’s intentions in her writing, and it shows that Glaspell was exceptionally skilled at using her writing as a vessel to criticize the injustices towards women within not only the legal system but society as a whole. “This story calls attention to some important features of women's culture: that the signs common to women's experience can make up a complex text capable of many readings; that in such a text women can read esoteric messages that are not easily accessible to men, including messages that comment on women's roles in relation to men, messages it would not be safe to express directly.” (Radner). The symbols employed by Glasepll, and the themes conveyed by the literary works as a whole. help subtly emphasize the importance of or indirectly advocate for women’s rights. The implementation of such writing techniques and literary devices are powerful and expressive to make political and cultural arguments that also resonate deeply with the community being fought for Glasepll’s writing challenges conformity and advocates for the importance of women's perspectives, strengths, and experiences during oppressive circumstances through her motifs and symbols. "A Modest Proposal," "Letter from Birmingham Jail," and "Trifles" effectively criticize the injustices and oppressive societies of their respective times through the literary tools of satire, symbolism, and motifs. Writing can be a vessel to express yourself, but when you are shaped and challenged by hardships, it can become more. Systemic oppression, political struggles, turmoil, or racial inequality can all be catalysts to address through righting. A variety of iterary tools can effectively address and connect with the reader, question their morality, or even demand action. Writing is essential to change, to progress. Works Cited Alkalay-Gut, Karen (1995). "Murder and Marriage: Another Look at Trifles". In Ben-Zvi, Linda (ed.). Susan Glaspell: Essays on Her Theater and Fiction. The University of Michigan Press. Diehl, Nicholas. “Satire, Analogy, and Moral Philosophy.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 71, no. 4, 2013, pp. 311–21. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42635868. King, Martin Luther Jr. (1963). Letter from Birmingham Jail (PDF). Stanford, CA: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. Glaspell, Susan. Trifles: A Play in One Act. Boston, Walter H. Baker, 1924. Mcnamara, James. “A Life of Jonathan Swift, beyond Satire.” The New York Times, 20 Feb. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/books/review/jonathan-swift-biography-john-stubb s.html. Mott, Wesley T. “The Rhetoric of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Phylon (1960-), vol. 36, no. 4, 1975, pp. 411–21. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/274640. Radner, Joan N., and Susan S. Lanser. “The Feminist Voice: Strategies of Coding in Folklore and Literature.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 100, no. 398, 1987, pp. 412–25. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/540901. Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745. A Modest Proposal. Champaign, Ill.: Project Gutenberg, 1997.
