Cannibalism In A Modest Proposal

Jonathan Swift created one of the most renowned satirical writings with his essay A Modest Proposal. Cannibalism was the central issue of the writing more precise a cannibalistic economy was the proposal by Swift to alleviate the poverty of Ireland. The selling and consuming of yearlings was the proposal by Swift due to cannibalism in Ireland being a view that the British held possible. According to Frank Lestringant the British held views that the Irish could possibly be cannibals among other views the British held against the Irish,
In a fundamental way, the “humble” proposal is no stranger to the traditional prejudices targeted at the “savage” Irish, anthropophagus in intention and in deeds, formerly and presently, or rather potentially,
The essay does this in a couple of places. When Swift is talking about how many males should be kept for breeding he says, “twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one fourth part to be males, which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle, or swine…” (Swift, 2634). Swift is representing the newborn babies with a lack of any humanity here which is his use of satire. He continues to symbolize how low the British view the Irish in hyperbolic fashion. Swift starts the comparison of the Irish to animals but as Charles Kay Smith states in his, Toward a “Participatory Rhetoric”, “He has turned people into animals, then meat, and from meat, logically, into tonnage worth a price per pound.”(138) Where Charles Kay Smith sees the representation of the Irish livestock as tonnage is when Swift writes, “I compute that Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses, and the rest of the kingdom (where probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper) the remaining eighty thousand.”(Swift, 2637) This change of comparisons from the viewing the Irish as animals to how the Irish is being viewed as a meat product ripe for eating is where Swift gets at the English with their demeaning attitudes. Swift believes some of the English view the Irish at this level of humanity that can be considered