The satirical essay, A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, is a very complex and well-developed piece of writing that was written in the 1700s. Swift based the setting of the satirical essay in Ireland to reflect the problems occurring at the time. Ireland, in the 1700s, was in a state of poverty and many people (kids in specific) were left out on the streets. Swift introduces the humorous idea to eat the poor children, so they don’t bring the whole economy down. Although humorous and satirical, Swift does provide reasoning for his idea and supports his idea with facts, which makes it to be a well-developed essay. Swift allows the reader to interpret his purpose of reforming the Irish government to help all social classes by including factual repetition, informing the government of the effects of lower class poverty, and persuading the government to hear his ideas. …show more content…
Swift provides calculations and proves that these poor children will continue to flow into the economy, and eventually bring the whole economy down. Swift, although obviously joking about the whole idea, concludes “There will remain 120,000 children of poor parents annually born”, which also brings in a sense of seriousness. The essay is very diluted because of the strong and solemn tone. Swift, although serious and providing logical facts, is obviously joking about the idea of eating the children. He uses the repetition of information to highlight the main idea of reform. Swift feels like the topic is serious enough to use the repetition of factual information, but feels as though making it a satire would provide a stronger and easier understanding to the idea of economic
Pamphlets were often used to spread ideas throughout Ireland in the late 1600s, however, many were discarded and ignored. “A Modest Proposal,” by Jonathan Swift, uses the pamphlets to his advantage by proposing a ridiculous idea to show how messed up the state of Ireland was. Swift proposed that the babies of all the poor would “contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands” or in other words, improve Ireland 's economic problems and standard of living (Swift). His main reason for proposing this drastic idea was because women continued to have children they could not provide food or anything for in some cases and Swift’s idea would make the children “beneficial to the public” (Swift). For these reasons, Swift looks at not only the politicians to blame for the poor conditions but the citizens of Ireland as well. In “A Modest Proposal”, Swift uses harsh
The obvious lack of ethics and morals in this passage cements that this essay is satirical and should not be understood as a legitimate solution to the starvation issue. He later listed the advantages of a system that breeds children for food, these advantages are all very unethical simply based off the fact that they are benefits of eating infants. Swift mentioned ideas including the murder of Catholic babies, eating humans as a fun custom, and giving the poor something of value (their own children). His use of ethos shows the audience that the essay is satirical and emphasizes the extreme ridiculousness of his ideas. Swift’s use of these three devices created a captivating and somewhat humorous satire.
For starters, in line 28, Swift writes about the horrors that overpopulation causes. He says, “There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas! Too frequent among us, sacrificing the poor innocent babes, I doubt, more to avoid the expense than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast.” This line is written as serious. It calls the death of babies a crime, and describes the “savage” and “horrid” infanticide; yet the thesis of the essay is about the systematic murdering and consuming of one year old children.
A Modest Proposal" has been hailed by literary critics as one of Jonathan Swift's greatest satirical works. The essay takes the form of a proposal that sets out to offer a solution to the problems of overpopulation and poverty in 18th century Ireland, albeit a seemingly outrageous one that suggests treating the children of the indigent Irish as gastronomical and economical assets. Swift expertly wields irony as a tool to satirize the many butts of his essay.... ... middle of paper ...
In the time frame that Swifts’ A Modest Proposal was written Ireland was going through political, economic, and religious struggles. In 1729 England had contrived, with the help of Irish venality, to wreck Ireland’s merchant marine, agriculture, and wool industry. Prostitutes in Swift’s paper are having kids like senseless people, but yet they can’t afford to feed them. Jonathan Swift proposes that his people should sell the babies and eat them. He thinks this would help solve the problem of over population. Swift tried to give his people pamphlets on how to fix the problem that was plaguing their country, but they ignored them. Swift says “These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants.”(1) Swift proposes that the mothers sell the babies for 8 shillings; the rich would find the child to be a delicacy and the extra money would go to the landlord. So everyone would benefit from this proposal. He does this as a way of making his people aware of what is going on in their
“A Modest Proposal” was written in 1729 by a satirical author by the name of Jonathan Swift. Swift studied at the University of Oxford and was also know for his popular writing in Gulliver’s Travel. The purpose for his satire “A Modest Proposal” was to enlighten the citizens of Ireland about their hardship and suffering. He informed them about their scares of food, money, and property, but provided a possible solution to their problem. To persuade the people Swift adopts a comforting and friendly tone to his audience for the people to react to his solution.
A satire uses irony or sarcasm to make a point. Many authors use satire to bring society’s attention to political, social, or economic problems in a somewhat humorous way. Some authors even use satire in an attempt to correct the religious practices of the society. Satire is an effective way to highlight problems because it is non-threatening but it grabs the attention of the reader. Jonathan Swift wrote his satirical essay “A Modest Proposal” to bring attention to the political, economic, and social problems of Ireland in 1729.
This essay by Jonathan Swift is a brutal satire in which he suggests that the poor Irish families should kill their young children and eat them in order to eliminate the growing number of starving citizens. At this time is Ireland, there was extreme poverty and wide gap between the poor and the rich, the tenements and the landlords, respectively. Throughout the essay Swift uses satire and irony as a way to attack the indifference between classes. Swift is not seriously suggesting cannibalism, he is trying to make known the desperate state of the lower class and the need for a social and moral reform in Ireland.
This essay will have no value unless the reader understands that Swift has written this essay as a satire, humor that shows the weakness or bad qualities of a person, government, or society (Satire). Even the title A Modest Proposal is satirical. Swift proposes using children simply as a source of meat, and outrageous thought, but calls his propo...
If Jonathan Swift had written a serious piece simply espousing his true beliefs he would not have received as much feedback, due to the fact that there were already informational advertisements at the time and nobody was interested in reading them. The only thing that would get the people 's attention was something that would create a lasting impression, so he wrote a satirical piece with trenchant humor and mochary. “A Modest Proposal” surprised people and got them thinking about the condition of the poor in Ireland and what should be done to solve it. For example Swift states that “those who are thrifty” can use the carcass of the infant for ladies’ gloves or gentlemen’s boots. This itself can help those reading the piece to begin to think about possible solutions to the substantial issues involving the poor in Ireland. He also proposes that children that are fourteen should be consumed as well so the poor don’t have to go hungry and that it would limit the number of breeders, in an attempt to illustrate the extremity of the circumstances. His sarcastic way of joking enlisted fear in the poor and concern in the rich, helping them realise the drastic issue present in the
In 1729, Jonathan Swift published a pamphlet called “A Modest Proposal”. It is a satirical piece that describes a radical and humorous proposal to a very serious problem. The problem Swift was attacking was the poverty and state of destitution that Ireland was in at the time. Swift wanted to bring attention to the seriousness of the problem and does so by satirically proposing to eat the babies of poor families in order to rid Ireland of poverty. Clearly, this proposal is not to be taken seriously, but merely to prompt others to work to better the state of the nation.
Jonathan Swift’s, “A Modest Proposal” by is a sardonic piece of work that provides an overwhelming sarcastic solution to the poverty and overpopulation issues that Ireland was having in the 1700s. He gives a sequence of nonviable and simply foolish solutions to the harsh treatment of children. The entire title of this work is, "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burden to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Public." This can sort of hint an idea on the bizarre insights that the writer is going to display. His resolution is to “fatten up” the undernourished, unfed children and sell them to a meat market where they will be sold for food. Thus, solving the economic and population problems in Ireland. Swift does this through a very sarcastic and harsh style that was advanced for the time that he wrote it.
The situation that he was so graphically stressing was the way the English landowners were devouring the parents financially, to which he responded sarcastically, “why not devour the children also?” His proposed solution caused the reader to consider these issues and was to help stop the maltreatment of the common citizen. Jonathan Swift also expressed the fact that people were constantly trying to solve their social and economic woes thr...
Readers see the theme of greed throughout the storyline. The upper class has a desire to reap in money and material wealth at any cost They are not concerned how this affects the lower class or society, their concern is to have the most they can and continuing to grow richer. They even put limitations on the land which prohibits the tenants to grow food. Swift’s proposition is written in satire to make ironic how ridiculous the level of greed is. Eating babies to solve the overpopulation and famine remarks an absurd level of greed. Perhaps it was the only way Swift could grab attention and make people see the greed in his proposition and trace it back to the current situation, “Swift’s satire can be so sharp and unyielding that he was variously judged to be insane, to have a disorder of the intellect”
It has been said that “although it (satire) is usually subtle in nature, it is used to bring light to contemporary societal problems and provoke change within a culture” (Friedman). One of the world’s best known pieces of satire is Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal. This piece of work aimed to expose the flaws regarding poverty in Ireland and the overwhelming and suffocating influence of the British government and Irish land owners. Swift uses satire to explain his “modest proposal”; in other words, he aims to prevent the people of Ireland from viewing children as a burden. In his use of satire, Swift places the blame of the abundant poor Irish population upon the English and the landowners.