Analysis Of The Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift

Eat a Baby to Save Ireland The Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift is one of the most famous examples of satirical writing in the english language; because of its instructions for the poor people of Ireland to sell their babies to be butchered and eaten by the upper class. Swift was a well respected minister, and dean of the Anglican Church and a member of the English ruling class in Ireland. The Modest Proposal was published anonymously to protect Swift’s identity and his position in the church. Swift was concerned with how the Irish society was operating, he disliked how the distribution of wealth was so lopsided and people of the upper class had no worries about those of the lower class, and that the number of people in the lower class was growing exponentially each day. At the time of the essay’s publication, the potato famine was hitting Ireland the hardest yet; so the streets of Ireland were filled with beggars and criminals searching for food and money. Looking at his essay from afar, it may seem that he is supporting the sale and consumption of babies. But in reality, his writing was supposed to scare the Irish population into changing the way they ran the country or else his essay may become a reality.
Swift keeps a calm, cool, and collected tone throughout the entirety of the essay which is why some of the readers believe that he was actually endorsing people to sell their babies if they're struggling for money.
Not only does he keep his tone consistent for the majority of the story, he lists reasons that make the horrible act seem not so horrible; from creating new jobs to invigorate the economy, the sale of babies will create a new delicacy for the upper class therefore more demand for the “exotic meat”, and it will create so much more money for those who are destitute and decide to sell their offspring. Also Swift says that if the number of poor children decreases, the number of thieves, crime, and beggars will decrease as
well. But in reality, Swift wrote this essay to scare the Irish population to change their ways or else they may have to resort to selling infants for consumption. The satire began to reveal itself in the first sentence. “It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and impourting every passenger for an alms.” Within this first sentence Swift makes it seem that he feels bad for the poor children and their mothers, but in less than a paragraph later he reveals ways to sell and cook said poor children. Swift also says that he has a trusted “American” source who told him that a healthy young child will make a great meal any way you serve it. The irony in that is at the time of the publication, America was just comprised of Native Americans and some colonists, so Swift is throwing a literary jab saying that the Americans are savages with no morals. And in the second to last paragraph, Swift is almost beckoning for other people who read his essay to think of another way to solve the issue or Irelands poor population - which is exactly what he wants, he wanted people to read this essay, get disgusted at the idea of cannibalism, and find other ways to solve the issue. Some may call Swifts essay just a wonderful example of satirical writing, but in reality, it may have been Ireland’s saving grace.