A Modest Proposal Rhetorical Analysis

Dear Mr. Smarmy,
I have received your letter and have taken in your concerns about the assigned reading of Jonathan Swifts A Modest Proposal. I have written this letter to put your mind at ease and to inform you that the purpose of the reading was to challenge the student’s minds on understanding satirical devices. The students are familiar with the definition of satire and they understand that it is sarcasm used to convey insults or scorn. The full title of the story is “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents, or the Country, and for making them Beneficial to the Publick”. Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal is an excellent example of the sharp wit and biting sarcasm that was employed in the satire of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Swift uses an ironically conceived
attempt to “find out a fair, cheap, and easy method” for converting the starving children of Ireland into "sound and useful members of the Commonwealth”. During this time period the poor children of the country are living in squalor's because their families are too poor to keep them fed and clothed. Swift uses economic reasoning for his persuasive benefit in turning this problem into its own solution. At first glance the proposal may come off as him stating to fatten up the undernourished kids of the poor people and to feed them to Ireland's rich land owners. To solve unemployment and overpopulation he makes a proposal to sell the children of the poor in a meat market starting at the age of one. This in effect would spare families the expense of child bearing while providing them with extra income improving the culinary experience of the wealthy and contributing to the overall well-being of the nation. The author uses statistical support for his assertions and gives specific data about the number of children to be sold, their weight and price and the consumption patterns. Although he suggests some recipes for preparing this new meat. He also hopes that the practice of selling and eating the children will have positive effects on family morality.meaning husbands will treat their wives with more respect and parents will value their children in ways unknown. Readers who are unacquainted with its reputation as a satirical work often do not immediately realize that swift was not seriously proposing cannibalism. Swifts rhetorical style persuades the reader to detest the speaker and to pity the irish. Swift uses the proposer’s serious tone to highlight the absurdity of his proposal.
In using the word “modest” in the title to describe his proposal utterly ludicrous to describe an proposal as appalling and horrific as this. Swift casually states that an acquaintance of his has assured him that "a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicate, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled. He then adds, "and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout. This statement is full of irony and wit. Before bringing the proposal to a close Swift proposes an unsarcastic statement it reads “Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, till he hath at least some glimpse of hope that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into practice”. The sarcastic comparisons and ironic exaggerations along with the witty language add an overtone to the proposal and leaves an strong imprint on the reader that is hard to forget. Jonathan swift wields sarcasm expertly in this proposal. Although the subjects or targets of his sarcasm are different he uses a genius method of
employing his true proposal. Towards the end Swift states his true proposal in this statement “I profess, in sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor and giving some pleasure to the rich. I have no other children by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past childbearing”. Jonathan Swift was an exceptional writer who went against the grain to call attention to the dire situation that Ireland was in. He proposes that in order to stimulate the economy in Ireland the children born to the impoverished, after reaching one year of age, are sold as meat to the wealthy. He also suggests that infant skin could become a very fashionable medium for ladies gloves and gentleman's boots. Swift was trying to maximize the shock value of cannibalism to point out a very serious matter. That the Irish people were in a horrendous state of being, with poverty, overpopulation, and a corrupt system there was almost no other way of getting out of this whole other than selling the Catholic's surplus infants. Swift is not seriously suggesting that we should revert to eating infants. He is trying to point out how bad things have become and how desperately there needs to be a solution. It is sarcasm at its best. Saying something completely outlandish and improbable to drive home your point. In conclusion Swift is awesome and his writing style and message are still relevant today.