Analyzing A Modest Proposal
A Modest Proposal takes place during a colonized Ireland in the 18th century. The author of this satire Jonathan Swift, informs the readers of the challenges that many women and children faced on a daily basis. They stood on the cold streets of Ireland day and night begging for scraps. Swift believed that it was absolutely preposterous that their English superiors were not decreasing Irish poverty at that time. According to his "modest proposal" Swift felt as though the impecunious Irish were a nuisance to the high-ranking Irish and English elite.
The Irish government has proven to be a weak one. It appeared as if they could care less about their citizens. They are satisfied as the rich get rich and the poor
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stay in poverty.The government is really the reason why Ireland was in the shape it was during this time in history. After all, the government has a big role to play in its citizens predicament. In his proposal, Swift suggested to the English government that if the poverty-stricken Irish were a liability, they should sell the children or cook them.
Based of Swift's satire, if the children are cooked and eaten , slowly but surely Irish poverty would reduce. The elite could entertain their guest with the finest wine and a roasted plump child. Swift continuously mocked the wealthy throughout his proposal.
The main reason for this brilliantly written masterpiece was to notify the elite that the destitute Irish were suffering. How can one possibly sit in his cozy mansion and not give to the needy? It is not only the lives of the wealthy that matter; everyone's life matters. Raising one child alone can be difficult but the women of those days were raising at least six. They were shamefully begging so that their precious children could have something to eat before going to bed.
There are many ways that the 18th century United Kingdom could have tackled the issue of poverty in Ireland. For example, even if half of the wealthy donated money to the poor, then a lot of impoverished children could have at least two meals a day. Ireland is rich with natural resources such as fish, minerals, and gold. The government could have traded their natural resources with the resources of other nations and have the economy booming. With a booming economy more jobs could be created.That does not mean that there would not be anymore poverty but at least it would be a start on defeating
it. After comprehending the proposal, it is clear that Swift is a caring man. He was exceptionally agitated with this issue. People are dying from this curable disease. Poverty could be cured easily by the rich elites and government. When will the wealthy realize that once they die, their wealth will no longer be in use to them. They will be buried in the same ground as someone who has never seen riches. Swift has done what so many authors aimed to achieve and that was to catch the attention of the readers. In an interesting and eye opening way this satire was motivational. It will now motivate others to give back to the less fortunate, donate to charities and possibly adopting. Even during the holidays, one can go to the soup kitchen volunteer feeding the needy. There are so many things that this proposal could inspire others to do. This proposal is not really easy for one to understand. If it is given to a couple of middle school students, they would think that this was a joke. They would not understand the dark humor or sarcasm in this writing. Only a mature and skilled mind can comprehend this type of literature.
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?
“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.
The essay “A Modest Proposal” written by Johnathan Swift takes a satirical view on how to solve the starvation issue in Ireland. Swift suggests an obviously satirical solution of eating children around the age of one. He used irony, ambiguity, and ethos to emphasize the satirical nature of the essay and present a captivating idea to the audience.
It is a Satire because of the proposal Swift made; the Irish should eat and sell their babies to reduce the number of beggars with the goal of getting rid of poverty. Swift even suggests that the Irish should eat teenagers. Logos were used to convince readers of the this problem in Ireland. One of the Logos used throughout this Satire, is the persuasion of which the Roman Catholics are a danger to the Country of Ireland. Their so called danger is their financial loyalty to their church versus supporting their own families (Bryon Edgington), and as well as they are the fastest breeders. This made the Roman Catholics considered as beggars, because they were poor due to their loyalty to the church. These would be the children Swift is suggesting to eat. “It will have one more collateral advantage by lessening the number of papists among us.” (Swift 1394). Another Logo is revolving around the “poor” which are also considered as the “breeders”, the fictional speaker introduces the argument of assumption that the breeders understand and accept the guidelines of the proposal “Secondly, the poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own, which by law may be made liable to distressed help to pay their landlord’s rent,” (Swift 1396). This shows that fictional speaker does not care and have any sympathy for those of which who are poor. It may seem like this is not logical because why would
With all of these problems, the parents couldn’t maintain their children, so they needed a solution. Now this incredible man comes with a solution that is going to blow your mind, Swift decides to give them a proposal. It was a really uncommon one, but very helpful for them. This proposal is going to stabilize once again the country of Ireland. He established the use of the children of the poor as a source of food.
A “Modest Proposal” is written by a man who had been exiled from England and forced to live among Irish citizens for many years during which he observed major problems in Ireland that needed a solution. The writer of this piece is Jonathan Swift, and in his proposal, “The Modest Proposal,” Swift purpose is to offer a possible solution to the growing problem of the homeless and poverty stricken women and children on the streets of Ireland. Swift adopts a caring tone in order to make his proposal sound reasonable to his audience, trying to convince them that he truly cares about the problems facing Ireland’s poor and that making the children of the poor readily available to the rich for entertainment and as a source of food would solve both the economic and social problems facing Ireland.
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.
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
Jonathan Swift says that the people, politicians, and English are all at fault for the terrible state and poverty of Ireland. Swift states that if a poor infant passes the dangerous years of childhood, they would “leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain” or “they would sell themselves to the Barbados,” as indentured servants.
Swift explains how selling a marketable child will be profitable and why the people of Dublin are willing butcher children to survive. He does this by saying, “I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife, as we do roasting pigs” (585). Swift uses verbal irony in a powerful way to state that Irish people should not be treated like animals killed as food. Swift points out the famine and the terrible living conditions that are threatening the Irish population by stating that children are a good source of food just like real animals do.... ... middle of paper ...
"A child just dropped from its dam may be supported by her milk for a solar year with little nourishments."(pg.623) In this satire, the author is explaining a child will be born and fed off of his mother’s milk, but that milk will not be plentiful because the mother is malnourished. To solve the problem of sad fate of the poverty stricken Irish people, who spend their life looking for food to feed their families. Swift has developed a plan to benefit the rich, by using the poor. His plan is to fatten up the unnourished children, and raise them as food for the wealthier citizens of Ireland. This would give the Irish economy a consequential advance, and reduce the population, which would make it easier for the great and noble England to deal with their disorderly citizens. Swift’s proposal would benefit the wealthy with more food supply and the poor with more income. This also contradicts the proposal because the poor would become rich.
Swift’s speaker mentions that the children would “…contribute to the feeding, and partly clothing of many thousands…” as well as “…prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practices of women murdering their bastard children…” reasoning that ethical benefits, such as putting an end to abortions and clothing several people, would result from the proposal. Bringing statistics into play emphasizes the economic benefit of his proposal. As Swift’s speaker suggests that the surplus of infants would more than likely be neglected, selling them would only generate profits resulting in Ireland becoming stabilized. Swift further appeals to logos by including his speaker’s thoughts on the amount of food that would result from a child that weighs around 28 pounds, reckoning it would be “…somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords…” By using more statistics like the approximation of a hundred and twenty thousand children of poor families born annually, Swift further supports his speaker’s proposal concluding that the best possible solution would be to relieve the families of this burden. The speaker also suggests that the proposal “…would be a great inducement to marriage…it would increase the care and tenderness of mothers towards their children…” using logos explain that his solution would lead to better family relations, as well as mothers being more careful with their
Author of A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift has a different writing style than most writers. In A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift has a sarcastic tone. He is tired of the U.S. government not taking poverty seriously and takes a different approach than anyone would expect. His “proposal” is to eat children under two years old to prevent them from becoming a burden to their parents. A Modest Proposal shows a different perspective on the government and selfish people with money.
British- Irish relations over the past three hundred years have been troubled. There have been many tensions caused by religion in Northern Ireland and Britain's unfair rule of Northern Ireland. The British are guilty of many of the indignities suffered by the Irish people. They are also guilty of causing all of the religious and territorial conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
Since the application of the Act of Union at the turn of the nineteenth century until 1923 the whole of Ireland was an integral part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. For a vast majority of this period Ireland was rule by Parliament in Westminster. According to Allen and Unwin the Irish Question was the greatest problem facing the British government in the late ninetieth and early twentieth century, yet the nature of the problem of Ireland meant that it was almost an impossible political issue to resolve as, no one solution would satisfy both the British electorate and the Irish population. Prior to the Irish War of Independence there had been mounting tensions over British rule in Ireland since the act of union in 1800. Throughout the nineteenth century various organisations had slowly been increasing in size and number in response to the rising resentment that had developed because of British rule within Ireland. Resentment was born out of hatred for the alien leadership that the Irish nation had to adhere to, this hatred was heightened due to the poverty