Books written at different times in history usually present the outlook of the particular period in which they were written . The events, activities and cultures of people at different times in history can easily be seen from the books written at such periods. The book, Gulliver's Travels, descriptively reflects the values and concerns of the Enlightenment. The book, ‘Waiting for Godot', also reflects the values and concerns of postmodernism. The books are tied to the events, activities and the values and interests of people at those particular times. In Jonathan Swift's novel, Gulliver's travels, he outlines odd sequences of events that are experienced by a sailor, Gulliver. The sailor comes across different races of people and creature as he travels. The events and descriptions in the book show the critiques of Jonathan against the enlightenment. Waiting for Godot also brings out the aspects of postmodernism in the 20 th century. This essay will describe how the two books are tied to the events and values of their time periods.
The Enlightenment period is the period in history when the world started to embrace the western culture. The period was characterized by revolutions in science, philosophy and politics. The revolutions swept away the medieval world while ushering in the modern western world. The period of the Enlightenment came to pass in the eighteenth century. It saw significant changes in the world in terms of scientific and industrial revolutions. Everyone's attention was diverted to the west as asserted by Koster and en Cultuur (2016) .
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In Jonathan's novel, his main character, Gulliver, travels the world meeting new people and learning new cultures and languages. Through the book, the author explores the events and aspect of the Enlightenment period. He criticizes the activities and values of people during the period bringing out a satirical presentation of the religion, morality, equality and desire and the ability to adapt to other societies.
Through the interactions of the Gulliver in the book, the author brings out the events of the enlightenment in which the whole world was put together as one. People started to come together interacting in different ways and sharing ideas. The massive changes in technology, culture and religion came along, during this period as stated by Alff (2014) . It is the changes, during this era, which have led to the success and the downfall of the current society. As we all know, there are the adverse effects of the great world revolution as well as the positive impacts. Jonathan in his novel also points out through a critique, adverse impacts of the Enlightenment.
Jonathan through his writing shows how different societies in the world can come together to share cultures and ideas. During the enlightenment, people learned new cultures and ideas ad also accepted the way of lives of other people. It is through the acceptance of the society to be diverse that people get to live together in peace. At some point in his adventure, the character, Gulliver, has to be hit a little bit to learn faster. Hui (2011) suggests that some societies still need more persuasion to embrace the modern culture.
Postmodernism is the term applied to literature, art, philosophy architecture, and fiction and cultural among others. Hooti (2011) believes that p ostmodernism attempts to react against the certainty of scientific efforts to explain reality. It stresses that reality should not be seen or staged in the human understanding but constructed by the mind in understanding its personal reality. Postmodernism is of the opinion that reality only comes into being through one's interpretation of what the world means him or her individually. Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot, brings out the aspect of postmodernism or the era of postmodernism. The book, written in the mid-20 th century focuses on the experimentation in art and literature of the late 19 th century and the early twentieth century. The writer and artist at this era broke away from the past and innovated all aspects of art, literature and culture.
The play brings out different aspects of postmodernism such as alienation from tradition and a questioning of the narratives previously seen to have some authority. The ply, question reality and criticize the value of reality as respected by the world of technology and science. The play depicts the aspects of the postmodernism world ( Gontarski, 2010) . It brings out the events during the postmodernism era and presents the values of the society during that period. It comes out as a mirror of the postmodernism world. It highly criticizes the facts about postmodernism and supports the aspects of postmodernism. Other aspects of postmodernism brought out in the play include entrapment and disorientation.
The play brings out the aspect of postmodernism of a pessimistic indictment of the present. It also warns that the future may become unbearable. Beckett in his play foresaw and feared that the world might become a worse place in the future. The play openly presents pessimism or the lack of hope for better things as presented by postmodernism. The book is tied to the events of its era and the values of the society at that particular time as ( Hooti & Torkamaneh, 2011) .
In conclusion, the two books, Gulliver’s Travel and Waiting for Godot, tie back to the periods when they were written . Jonathan's book, Gulliver's Travel, brings out the aspects of the Enlightenment period and the events that took place. It describes the ways in which people got to come together and embraced the western culture. The character in the book travels to different places, meets different people and learns different languages and culture. The play, Waiting for Godot, also brings out the aspects of postmodernism which criticizes the facts of reality and duels on pessimism.
References
Alff, D. (2014). Swift's Solar Gourds and the Rhetoric of Projection. Eighteenth-Century Studies , 47 (3), 245-260.
Gontarski, S. E. (2010). A companion to Samuel Beckett . John Wiley & Sons.
Hooti, N. (2011). Samuel Beckett‟ s Waiting for Godot: A Postmodernist Study in English Language and Literature Study. Vol. I , 40-48.
Hooti, N., & Torkamaneh, P. (2011). Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot: A Postmodernist Study. English Language and Literature Studies , 1 (1), 40.
Hui, H. (2011). The Changing Adaptation Strategies of Children's Literature: Two Centuries of Children's Editions of" Gulliver's Travels". Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS) , 245-262.
Koster, N. D., & en Cultuur, E. T. (2016). Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels as a Critique of the Effects of Print Culture during the Enlightenment (Bachelor's thesis).
