Jonathan Swift and Joseph Conrad both wrote novels with the goal of criticizing imperialism. Both authors wrote in unique ways and used the strengths of their own genres to expose some of the wrongs in imperialism. Jonathan Swift used satire in Gulliver’s Travels to reveal how ignorant English values were and Joseph Conrad used a frame narrative to reveal how ineffective imperialism was. Swift and Conrad both reveal good points in their novels, however throughout their novels it’s very clear that Swift and Conrad have a European male mentality which keeps them from seeing all the wrong in imperialism and instead seeing some wrong things with imperialism. During the 1700s the English nation thought themselves to be superior over those who weren’t English. Swift noticed the assumptions the English made of their superiority over other nations were wrong. Swift chose to write his novel Gulliver's Travels using satire to expose the way English viewed superiority. In the novel Gulliver is betrayed by his new crew members and then abandoned on an island where he discovers creatures that are human-like which attack him. He later discovers horses which scare away the human-like creatures. The horses which are referred to as Houyhnhnms' in the story, are respectful and civilized which Gulliver doesn't understand. Gulliver refers to the Houyhnhnms' as “brute beats” which is an example of irony. Gulliver assumes that the horses must have owners and that they must be “the wisest people upon earth” which he is wrong about. The people in the Houyhnhnms' country are referred to as Yahoos. The Yahoos are human-like in appearance but they act like wild animals and are the most disgusting animals Gulliver has ever seen.
Europeans thought themselves to be civilized and often thought anyone who wasn’t European was savage which Swift noticed was wrong and wanted to communicate using the Houyhnhnms' and the Yahoos in Gulliver’s Travels. The Houyhnhnms' society represents a concept of life that is governed by reason and logic. While the yahoos represent the cruelty and savagery of humans. Although Swift imagines a better society than the way English society was during Swift’s time, he fails to imagine a society without 18th-century English stereotypes. This can easily be noticed in his novel because male Houyhnhnms' are the heads of their homes, they dictate the female Houyhnhnms',and the Houyhnhnms' that are wealthy have servants. Swift seems to be communicating that the wealthy Houyhnhnms' are worth more value than those who aren’t wealthy, which is wrong.

Joseph Conrad noticed how ineffective European colonization was and he chose to