Jonathan Swift’s essay, “ A Modest Proposal” discusses a serious issue of poverty within Ireland and the country. The full title of the essay, “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from being a Burthen to Their Parents of the Country and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public,” explains Swift’s idea in dealing with this issue. Within this essay, Swift states that the country is overpopulated, specifically with poverty ridden families with many children. The solution to this issue is to get rid of these starving, incapable children through various inhumane acts. This allows for the children to be used in a beneficial way in society. Swift writes these thoughts through the use of satire. Satire is the use of ridicule, …show more content…
Swift writes about the possibility of selling children, after the age of one, to companies for food in hopes that this will solve multiple life problems. Swift writes, “...a young healthy child...is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food...” (Swift 568). He believes that not only will this solve the overpopulation in the country but it would, allow for more able bodied people to work, allow for stocks to increase, make the breeders not have to pay to have children, and make a husband and wife relationships stronger. This idea specifically has a lot of irony involved. In the beginning of the essay Swift talks about abortion being a terrible way of murdering children while he also writes about raising kids for the purpose of eating them. Swift says, “... it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children...” (Swift 567). This line again reflects a negative light on the women in this essay, that the decisions that they are making are not helping society. Although there are plenty of arguments addressing whether abortions are an ethical procedure, abortions seem like a more humane approach than to raise a child for a year and sell them to be later consumed by the public. Swift backs up his arguments involving his solution by using statistical evidence …show more content…
He uses ridicule, irony, and exaggeration. Since Swift acts as if he believes that cannibalism is an acceptable way of dealing with poverty and the population, exaggeration is definitely used. Swift’s general solution to poverty is exaggerated when he talks of selling, butchering, and preparing the children. Swift establishes his solution in dealing with the children and begins listing the various ways one can eat a child. Swift writes, “... seasoned with a little pepper or salt, will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in the winter” (Swift 568). This section of the essay seems as if it was about beef or poultry but then ties back into the starving children in Ireland. The author’s use of italics can also be viewed as an exaggeration because nearly every crazy and unethical idea that Swift states is italicized. Swift tries to set himself up as a monster by adding these details into the essay which draws awareness to the way people view the
It is a great contradiction and absurdity that a husband and father proposes the idea of cannibalism. The narrator does not want the reader to agree that the solution to overpopulation and poverty in Ireland is to eat babies; he wants the reader to see it. needs to be a practical solution. Although something seems one way to the narrator, Jonathan Swift wants. the reader to see it in the opposite light.
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 issue that Swift is addressing is the fact that there are too many poor children in Dublin and that they are becoming such a huge burden for all the poor mothers or parents of the country. Swift then creates his own solution to the problem. He proposes that all poor children who are around one year of age, be cooked and eaten by the people of Dublin, preferably the poor. With this solution, he argues that it will eventually put an end to the overpopulation of the poor young children and it will satisfy the hunger for all the other people. Crazy right?
This was mostly done by his descriptions of preparing the children like they are a chicken, and his list of advantages to eating children. While describing how to prepare a child Swift said, “a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food.” The manner in which he described a human child the same way one would a cow, chicken, or fish. The obvious lack of ethics and morals in this passage cement 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.
Jonathan Swift, a well-known author, in his essay “A Modest Proposal,” implies that the Irish people should eat children so that they can better their chances of survival. Swift supports his implication by describing how his proposal will have many advantages such as, eliminating papists, bringing great custom to taverns, and inducing marriages. He comes up with an absurd proposal to eat and sell the children to the elite so the Irish can have a brighter future. His purpose is to show that the Irish deserve better treatment from the English. Throughout his essay, Swift uses sarcasm, satire, and irony.
In eighteenth century Ireland, the nation was in a famine and an epidemic of poverty due to the high prices of land and food. Jonathan Swift saw a problem, so h wrote and spread what we call today, A Modest Proposal. Swift’s essay is satirical. He exaggerates and gives inaccurate statistics to deliver a thesis that runs deeper than the explicit one about eating babies. While much of the essay seems to imply that Swift’s persona eats babies, there are some instances where Jonathan hints at the ironic themes of the writing.
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
One way that Swift tries to persuade the reader that his proposal is normal or ethical is through the fallacies of the scare tactic. Swift uses his proposal as an attack on the economic problems going on in Ireland. In the beginning swift begins to persuade the reader that his proposal is logical and normal. Do we agree on the fact that eating children is morally and economically wrong? He also states that his proposal would make the children “beneficial to the public” (444). Can we agree that Swift is not suggesting that the people of Ireland would really eat their children. More or
Through extreme hyperboles, Swift underscores the gargantuan social issues afflicting Ireland in the 1720s. While proposing a plan to solve all of Ireland’s problems, Swift explains that “a young healthy child well nursed is… a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled” (Swift 59-60). Swift exaggerates all of the effects of his plan, especially the supposedly tasty “boiled” child. Rather than simply stating that eating children would solve all of Ireland's problems, Swift goes on to list the many ways these dishes would be prepared. Even
The point where you see that Swift’s proposal is meant to be satiric is when he starts to talk about the economic gains of selling poor children. It is meant to be a point to address the exceeding amount of poor children that are being sold to slavery rather than an indication to cannibalism. A modern audience
In Jonathan Swift’s satire, “A Modest Proposal”, Swift writes about the starving people of Ireland in the early 1700’s. He makes a wild and absurd proposal to help remedy the problems of overpopulation and poverty. Swift wants to make a political statement by using the “children” as satire to grasp the attention of the audience - the English people, the Irish politicians and the rich – and make them aware of the political, moral, and social problems. In “A Modest Proposal”, Swift’s arguments are presented effectively by using pathos (emotional appeal), ethos (ethics and values), and logos (logic reasoning and facts).
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.
All though he kept the use of them limited, a use of sympathy for the children by going into detail of how the children will be prepared and eaten. “A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter” (A Modest Proposal). The audience is made to feel Swift’s irritation at the situation and his unyielding attempts to relieve Ireland of the problems of the poor with his statement, But, as to myself, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, (A Modest Proposal). Swift was fed up with the rich ignoring the situation he did the only thing he thought he could do, wrote a proposal that would shock his audience into seeing the situation for what it was,
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...
One of the voices that is present throughout the story is that of irony. The story itself is ironic since no one can take Swifts proposal seriously. This irony is clearly demonstrated at the end of the story; Swift makes it clear that this proposal would not affect him since his children were grown and his wife unable to have any more children. It would be rather absurd to think that a rational man would want to both propose this and partake in the eating of another human being. Therefore, before an analyzation can continue, one has to make the assumption that this is strictly a fictional work and Swift had no intention of pursuing his proposal any further.