Swift, Orwell, and King Standing against the Injustices...

Introduction Jonathan Swift and Martin Luther King never compromised their principles even if it might have been practical and expedient to do so, while George Orwell admitted to having done so once, only with great reluctance and regret. At all times, King was ready to sacrifice his life for his principles and finally did so in 1968, while Orwell actually fought for his. Both of these men were in fact heroic examples of activists and intellectuals who took a stand for what they believed right and never gave up or retreated. King faced death many times, and was almost assassinated in Birmingham in 1963, and also went to jail many times for his principles. In the end, he led the civil rights movement to victory in the United States, accomplishing more than any black leader before or since. His Letter from a Birmingham Jail in 1963 was a classic exposition of equal rights and freedom for all human beings, just as Orwells short story Shooting and Elephant was a principled denunciation of British imp erialism. Swift was not nearly as great a hero and moral example as King and Orwell, who took a firm and principled stand against the major injustices of their time. His Modest Proposal was a strong satirical attack against British imperialism in Ireland, though, and the extreme poverty, hunger and oppression faced by the inhabitants of that island. This became his most famous essay, in fact, and one that is still read today as a brilliant example of satire and sarcasm,Show MoreRelatedGeorge Orwell23689 Words   |  95 PagesGeorge Orwell England Your England As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me. They do not feel any enmity against me as an individual, nor I against them. They are ‘only doing their duty’, as the saying goes. Most of them, I have no doubt, are kind-hearted lawabiding men who would never dream of committing murder in private life. On the other hand, if one of them succeeds in blowing me to pieces with a well-placed bomb, he will never sleep any the worse for