Jonathan Swift’s ‘A Modest Proposal’ talks about how children of poor people are a burden to their parents and how the parents should fatten up their children and then feed them to Ireland’s rich land-owners. But in the last sentence of ‘A Modest Proposal’, “I have no children, by which I can propose a single penny; the youngest being nine and my wife past child-bearing” is one example of the verbal irony in the whole pamphlet.…
If Swifts ‘Modest Proposal’ is satire, as everyone seems to think, then I am even more repulsed in the writing than I was before. Everyone at the webinar the other day thought the little baby was such a cute, darling, little thing, and I agree, life is beautiful. To find humor in, or joke about, killing and eating babies is quite disgusting actually. Finding humour in something so disturbing, grotesque and violent, is quite assaulting to human dignity. The fact, that the author distanced himself from the piece by writing anonymously points to the fact he knew of its graphic assault, whether satire or not.…
In the satirical, thought provoking pamphlet, “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, the Anglo-Irish author addresses the issue of rampant, prolonged poverty in 1700's Ireland.…
Jonathan Swift establishes credibility through rewording few of his acquaintances: “…a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London… a grave author, an eminent French physician… a very worthy person, a true lover of his country, and whose virtues I highly esteem… the famous Psalmanazar, a native of the island Formosa.” However, because the information he gathers are from people that others would not know of, his credibility is questionable. Nevertheless, he also gives very detailed and specific facts that help support his argument. Basically, Swift appeals to his audience through rhetorical literary techniques—logos, ethos, and pathos. The entire proposal is a measurement of Swift’s ethos and logos. The way he presents…
Jonathan Swift's 1729 satirical pamphlet, “A Modest Proposal from Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland, from Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick” under the pseudonym of Dr. Swift, has been regarded as an important historical text, exploiting the conditions of Ireland in the 18th century. In “A Modest Proposal”, Swift proposes to the Irish public that to lessen the burden of poverty in Ireland they must sell their children as food and sustenance to feed the country’s wealthy. As it is a satire, Swift's approach and proposal suggests the dire economic conditions of Ireland during the 18th century, and provides a context for Ireland’s culture during this time and a framework for how people lived in all sectors of the economic classes.…
The final technique that Swift employs to exacerbate tensions between the British and Irish as a result of Ireland’s struggling economy is a satirical ethos, impersonating an economist to suggest that without British cooperation, eating children is the only viable resolution to Ireland’s economy. Swift diction reflects this purpose as he employs economic jargon repeatedly throughout the essay, including as “commodity, yield, computed, per annum, and net profit” (Swift) . He contributes to the persona later in the essay, when he makes realistic calculations to “prove” that cannibalism will benefit the economy , such as “subtracting thirty thousand couples” to find that “there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand breeders” (Swift 6). After…
In “A Modest Proposal”, Jonathan Swift reaches out to the readers about social problems that the great town and county are going through. I believe Swift is trying to tell the readers in a satirical way that the government and political party are not doing anything in the country to solve the social problems. Swift believed the only way to catch their attention was to write the essay “A Modest Proposal”. Swift used satire in his essay to inform people of Ireland how high poverty, hunger, and death rates were not getting any help from the government.…
“A Modest Proposal” is a strongly written satire by Jonathon Swift. In the essay, Swift applies nearly all of the elements of satire. Some of the most obvious elements are his use of creating a persona and his exaggeration. Beginning by analyzing the title, “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to The Public”, it is a reasonable topic for the essay. However it is not at all modest. Swift absurdly creates suggestions to make the poor children beneficial. His primary goal in this essay is to shame the English, bring up the issues of poverty and motivate the Irish.…
I've read many articles in my day, and I am known to be a very sarcastic person at times but this piece “A Modest Proposal” is next level insane, now I may be wrong, but what I've gathered from this piece is basically cannibalism of young children. “A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled.” Now i haven't really heard about Dr. Jonathan Swift, nor do I really know about his background, but his use of satire in this article is preposterous. I only hope this is a use of satire and that Dr. Swift hasn't actually considered doing this. Because the thought of this alone, in my eyes, is absurd. This proposal has a very diverse use of satiric devices…
Swift’s use of metaphors is graphic, gripping, and disturbing simultaneously. He shocks the readers by proposing that Irish babies should be used in recipes for stew as a delicacy that both the rich English and Irish can consume. He uses wit as a tool to depict the condition of the poor forcing the reader to revise the political climate faced by the Irish. To help them…
In his satirical essay "A Modest Proposal," Johnathan Swift examines treatment of the poor in Ireland during the eighteenth century: “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London; that a young healthy child, well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food; whether stewed, roasted, baked or boiled, and I make no doubt, that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or ragout.” (Swift 763) In his essay, Swift describes a repulsive suggestion for dealing with the children of the poor in Ireland. Swift describes in detail how poor children should be raised and sold to the wealthy at age one. He details how the children should be and how they should be prepared for the wealthy to consume. Swift's abhorrent proposal for the poor children not only points out the awful treatment of the poor in Ireland during the eighteenth century, but also Ireland's inability to devise a more desirable plan for the poor. His use of statistics and graphical depiction of the poor children's lives adds to the credibility of his essay.…
Stereotypes against Irish Catholics make it easier for Swift to use them as the subject of his satire. The stereotypes are present in both the reasons for the proposal and the language used. The narrator’s argument that something must be done with infants because they are too young to steal implies that this is a common employment of Irish Catholics, even while it is humorous apart from the stereotype. The overall idea…
Johnathan Swift writes this satirical proposal to "prevent the children of poor people in Ireland from being a burden to their parents or the country" and to make them "beneficial to the public".…
(Swift, 1729) He goes so far as to suggest different ways of preparing the children as meals. (Swift, 1729) He claims that this is the only answer for all the children born into poverty. (Swift, 1729) He claims that under their present day conditions, it is impossible to solve the problem by any other means. (Swift, 1729) The poor cannot be employed in handicraft or agriculture, or build houses and cultivate land. (Swift, 1729) Children can’t make a living as thieves until around six years of age so that isn’t an option. Nope, all that can be done with them is to eat them. (Swift,…
The late 1600s and early 1700s in particular were a difficult time for Ireland. Catholics made up most of the Irish poor who constituted 80 percent of the population and owned less than one-third of the land. As the Protestant English landowners took over in the 1700s, the Irish Catholics dove deeper into lives of famine and poverty. In “A Modest Proposal”, Jonathan Swift presents several claims and supporting evidence that the consuming of the Irish nation’s growing number of children will solve the poverty epidemic as well as decrease religious enemies.…