A Modest Proposal

Jonathan Swift, a respected writer, wrote and publicized A Modest Proposal in 1729. His article’s purpose was proposing a solution for the poor people being a burden in Ireland, also known as poverty and starvation. Swift adopts an opinionated tone on the matter in order to successfully get his point across to readers. He wants readers to agree with his proposal, the intended audience being the Irish public.

The issue being brought to our attention in this article is that there’s overpopulation and poverty in Ireland and the context is the harsh conditions the people have to live in. Writer Jonathan Swift is creating this argument and it seems evident that Swift is biased toward the whole situation. He wants to benefit the rich by killing and cooking the poor babies. The main point Swift wants to get across is that the poor are less significant in society and everyone would benefit by slowly killing off their children. John presents this piece with a satirical argument, his purpose being to persuade readers to take his side on the topic being brought to the reader’s attention. His argument is structured in an article. Swift jumps to the assumption that killing and eating the poor babies is going to benefit society and rid Ireland of poverty and hunger. He expresses his opinion clearly throughout the article and ensures the reader knows how he feels.

The reader really gets a sense of who Jonathan Swift is as a person as the read A Modest Proposal. I would describe his character as a sarcastic maniac due to his unrealistic proposal. Swift is a well-respected writer throughout Ireland. Swift appears to be an extremely opinionated writer and therefore doesn’t care to understand opposing views. The topic in A Modest Proposal is a ...

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...ths and weaknesses in Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal. His strong components being that he uses a strong form of logos to persuade readers and to get his point(s) across. He also appeals to the reader’s emotions consistently throughout his piece in ways such as describing how the babies are cooked, grossing out readers. Although on the flip side the article had weaknesses, that being had no factual evidence supporting his claims. Everything Swift stated was based on his personal opinions and logic, making his article less credible.

All things considered, Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal uses pathos, ethos and logos to effectively make the reader feel a certain way, whether it be disgusted or persuaded. Given these points, Swift constructed a very well structured, effective article that really made the reader think about what he was bringing to the table.