A Modest Proposal

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Recommended: Jonathan Swift using satire

De La Salle University-Manila
Senior High School Department

Midterm Critique Paper

Tan, Enjei Marie J.
11640286
STEM11-H

RSW
Professor:
Javen G. Babac Jr.

Submission date:
November 7, 2016 A Modest Proposal for 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, also known as “A Modest Proposal”, is a satirical hyperbole written by Jonathan Swift to mock British policies towards the overall Irish population. It is a scholastic commentary that was published anonymously on year 1729. It was squibbed to encourage people in power such as politicians, to stop showing false modesty and start taking action based on realistic arguments. Jonathan …show more content…

It is said that the children of the poor are being an encumbrance or a hindrance to their parents, specifically to their mothers, and to their country. Swift implies to make these infants beneficial and propitious by selling them for the rich nobles to devour in exchange for compensations. He laid out an accurate plan on how his proposed scheme is going to be implemented. He cited how these children are going to be prepared, cooked and handled. He narrated how these newborns are going to be fattened until they reach the age of one, sell them and have the rich eat them up to their satisfaction. The use of the skin or carcass was also mentioned and how it can be a perfect material for gloves and summer boots. The satirist also gave a distinct description of the texture of a one year old child’s flesh. He gave multiple leverages that the proposal can provide when approved. First advantage being, they will have less number of papists or Roman Catholics who are known as the principal breeders of the country. Second, the poor will have the opportunity to have a fortune of their own. Third, the Nation’s stock will increase. Fourth, it will lessen the burden that poor mothers carry. Fifth, the new food will be dressed into perfection by Vintners and will be eaten by fine gentlemen who gives value upon their knowledge of fine dining. And lastly, it will be a good suasion to married couples take good care of her child for it will bring her good

Rhetorical Analysis in A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
538 Words | 2 Pages
Jonathan Swift is the speaker in the story, A Modest Proposal. He is also the author of many other books and stories. In the text of A Modest Proposal, Swift addresses what he believes to be a big issue in the magnificent country of Ireland, Dublin to be exact. Therefore, he proposes a solution to the problem, however, the solution is not what we would call humane, orthodox, reasonable, or even one that we would consider performing today. Swift wrote this piece for anyone that can read and comprehend what the text implies.
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A Modest Proposal And Let Them Eat Dog Rhetorical Analysis
815 Words | 2 Pages
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
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Satirical Response To A Modest Proposal
650 Words | 2 Pages
During the 18th century Ireland was in a very serious crisis. Jonathan Swift decides to write “A Modest Proposal” as a satirical response to this crisis. In that essay he gives a solution to each of the problems that Ireland was having during that time. The main points that he wanted to discuss were domestic abuse, overpopulation, poverty, theft, and the lack of food. This crisis led the great nation of Ireland into economic struggles.
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Pathos In A Modest Proposal
755 Words | 2 Pages
Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal is an attempt to bring attention to horrible the condition in which the poor or destitute people in Ireland are living in. His argument that children of these improvised people should be sold to “the persons of quality and fortune” (A Modest Proposal) for consumption, is Swift’s gruesome way of saying you might as well eat the babies, if no one is going to actually try to fix the problems of the poor in Ireland.
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A Modest Proposal
601 Words | 2 Pages
Since the beginning of the 19th century, America has had to deal with the on going
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A Modest Proposal - Rhetorical Analysis Essay
737 Words | 2 Pages
In 1729, Jonathan Swift published a pamphlet called “A Modest Proposal”. It is a satirical piece that described 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. Swift hoped to reach not only the people of Ireland who he was calling to action, but the British, who were oppressing the poor. He writes with contempt for those who are oppressing the Irish and also dissatisfaction with the people in Ireland themselves to be oppressed.
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Rhetorical Analysis Of Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal
1115 Words | 3 Pages
His solution is paradoxical in that eating children is beneficial for economic reasons, of which he lists in points of order with numerical calculations, yet raises further moral problems. Swift utilizes verbal irony in his writings to demonstrate a contradiction in his sarcastic proposal of eating children by dehumanizing certain people to achieve a constant expression of his own opinions. Swift’s proposal appears to be anything but “modest” as consuming children is irrational and absurd, adding to the sarcastic and humorous aspect of the work. He dehumanizes women by saying that they act as “breeders” and they can only pay for their children by “[getting] the value in scraps, by her lawful occupation of begging.” Rather than utilizing language on how parents should be able to have plentiful food, he states they “contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands.”
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Verbal Irony In A Modest Proposal
1197 Words | 3 Pages
Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal is a shocking satire that discusses the dire poverty in Ireland. It says if one is born poor, they will stay that way unless society puts them to use. Children are food to be eaten. In an economic slump, children will be used to feed and clothe Ireland’s population. Swift’s purpose for writing A Modest Proposal was to call attention to the exploiting and oppressing by the English to the Irish.
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A Modest Proposal
1099 Words | 3 Pages
Swift begins his argument by stating his view on the situation and displaying his annoyance. He states, "It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country when they see the streets, roads, and cabin doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms" (Swift 1). He uses melancholic imagery for the readers to sympathize with the suffering children and to understand their situation. Similarly, Swift displays his disgust for the wealthy by stating that "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… which would move tears in the most savage and inhumane beast" (1). He talks about abortion and shows how ghastly and disheartening the practice is. Clearly, Swift makes use of pathos to slowly gain the reader’s confidence in preparation for his appalling proposal. He knows that many will be emotionally affected by his proposal because no one would want their own c...
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Analysis of A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
1077 Words | 3 Pages
Swift, Jonathan. "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." 1729. Rpt. in Current Issues and Enduring Questions. Ed. Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau. Boston, MA: St. Martin's 1996.
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A Modest Proposal
961 Words | 2 Pages
There are so many problems with this article, but first would include that Swift is very nonchalant about the murdering of these babies for money. He then goes on to talk about the babies as if they were cattle or a pig that a farmer would fatten up for Christmas dinner. Also, he was trying to be satirically funny at the end when he mentioned he would never be able to do this plan. But, he is plainly mocking the reader and quite frankly thinking that they are stupid, with Swift’s arrogance and inhumane look at these helpless babies that this work has nothing but grave weaknesses. Overall, the author tries to convince Ireland’s poor families to sell their children to the rich to eat for money. Such an outlandish plan that was useless to even consider, yet write about in the first place.
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A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift
1159 Words | 3 Pages
Swift exemplifies how to use irony to challenge the issues facing early 18th century Britain and Ireland. An ingenious weaving of appalling imagery and indefensible argument effectively divulge a clear message to his readers that changes must be made in the prejudicial and dysfunctional society in which they live. British domination is confronted and Irish ineptitude is thrust into the spotlight of this satirical work. No longer can the wealthy act arrogantly unaware and intimidating; nor can the Irish population remain withdrawn in the shadows of oppression. The devastating irony of Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” attacks injustice and reveals a path to a united kingdom.
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Modest Proposal Rhetorical Analysis
982 Words | 2 Pages
In the 1720s, there was widespread poverty and hunger in the country of Ireland that was completely under the English control. Jonathan Swift, a native of Ireland, was enraged about the treatment of the Irish People. Swift’s was then influenced to write his Modest Proposal to stun his readers into creating a reasonable solution to Ireland’s dilemma. Swift use different symbols to figuratively express the issues that the county is facing. Swift’s tone and style displayed in the Modest Proposal evokes unpopular reactions from his readers thus, causing his point to be noticed.
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A Modest Proposal: Jonathan Swift's Political Statement About Conditions of Life in 1729
1090 Words | 3 Pages
Mouth-watering, scrumptious, and delicious are a few words that come to mind when you think of Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal.” His satire on the conditions of life in 1729 was to draw its readers to serious discussion on the distressing matters that plagued their society. His extreme and sarcastic response to the treatment of the ever-growing poor population of Irish families, by the rich English landowners, was to bring to light a matter that they had come to accept as normal. Apparently, over time English landowners obtained ownership of Irish lands and would lease these lands back to the Irish farmers at outrageous prices. This made it nearly impossible for farming families to make ends meet and in some cases to the point of near starvation. When many children of poor families grew up, they fled to foreign lands in search of a better life or they turned to a life of crime to make a living. The staggering number of children born to parents that could not support them was shocking and of a surety rarely considered in wealthy homes. Through this essay, he compelled the current government officials of the time to devise rational solutions that would deal with the large population of poor Irish farmers, and fix the conditions in which they lived.
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Satire, Irony, And Humor In Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal
1320 Words | 3 Pages
Having “maturely weighted the several schemes of other projectors”(1288), Swift’s narrator asserts that other plans proposed to take care of the poor are inherently flawed as those children will still be a plague on society until they mature to working age. He goes on to describe the details of his plan, calculating that one hundred and twenty thousand poor children would be available to sell for food. Of this group it is proposed that twenty thousand of these be saved for breeding, and furthermore one fourth would be male “more than we [Irish society] allow to sheep, black cattle, or swine” (1289). Swift uses this line to let his piercing irony shine through for the first time in the pamphlet in dehumanizing the impoverished people of Ireland by speaking of them as strictly statistics and treating them as livestock. This ironic comparison brilliantly plays on the sad fact that, at the time, poor families were treated worse as humans than the livestock throughout the country. This dehumanization continues as Swift advises that mothers of poor children should receive payment of ten shillings, or roughly $65.38 in today’s money. The further irony here is that this amount of
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A Modest Proposal

Rhetorical Analysis in A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift