The English Enlightenment seemed to be one of the first intellectual movements to dominate the era. Many people began to distrust God and believe that rationality came from within and not from following God's will. Science was important during this era; saying that reason is the way of understanding the world. Humans are considered rational people, so their ways are the only way to observe and understand the unknown. “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift and “Candide” by Francois-Marie Arouet, also known as Voltaire, both depict extreme situations and provide human reasoning to solve problems. Ultimately revealing that although there are differences between social classes, everyone faces the same problems and if they are not solved, happiness will fade. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Jonathan Swift elaborates on the growing problems of poverty in Ireland. He makes a proposal saying: "That at the age of one year the children should be offered for sale to people of quality and fortune, throughout the kingdom, always advising the mother to let them nurse abundantly in the last month, so as to make them plump ". , and fat forever'. The rest of the children not needed for food can be kept for themselves. The poor will then have money to spend on basic necessities and the rich will now have food. He moves away from how it would feel to eat little children and finds the rationality behind it because enlightenment is all about reason and not emotions. By eating the fat, children will introduce a new source of food for those who are starving and stimulate the economy. It seemed like a win-win situation, however, it was vulgar and unpleasant. People thought he was crazy because who would propose something so terrible. Swift made sure to use something so wacky that people would listen. Reason without emotion was ridiculous. From the point of view of reasoning, the proposal made sense, but no one was going to hurt children to save the country. Swift pulled society towards her to ridicule this movement and draw attention to the problem of poverty. This proposal united society to degrade Swift but also allowing them to see the real problems they all faced. Voltaire expresses a better perspective for enlightenment in his episodic structured novel, telling the story of a young man, Candide, and his journey. Candido experiences many setbacks but steadily moves forward. Candide experiences many hardships on his journey, including death, battles, and earthquakes. Voltaire tries to show that no matter what happens in the world, the world they live in now is the best of two possible worlds. Candide experiences many difficulties, which all of society has experienced at least once, but whatever you go through, be strong and overcome adversity. Voltaire expressed optimism throughout the novel, looking for the best in situations. Candide finally arrives in a beautiful garden and remembers something Pangloss supposedly told him: “All events are connected to each other in the best possible worlds…you wouldn't be sitting here eating candied citron and pistachios.” All events in life happen for a reason, you cannot move on to happiness and better, unless you have experienced bad. Just because bad things happen doesn't mean you should sit back and do nothing, stand up and prove yourself wrong. All the characters in the novel experienced the bad thing and some eventually lived to happiness because they fought for their lives and demonstrated.