Published in 1729, “A Modest Proposal” is a satirical essay that intends to inform readers of the difficult situation of poor low-class people in Ireland. Furthermore, the essay is a piece of literature that condemns the unethical proposal of eating humans. In a satirical proposal, the author suggests that low-class Irish citizens may resort to selling their dependent children in an attempt to attain economic freedom. In exchange of money, the children would be used as food sold to the upper-class society. This essay explores and evaluates the overall effectiveness in achieving its effectiveness in Jonathan Swift’s essay “A Modest Proposal.” In the essay, Swift employs the quality of Aristotle’s rhetoric in to develop the persuasive argument.
The essay reveals the rhetorical triangle. He plays the role the individual who
…show more content…
criticizes the condition of the Irish population and the situation of the poor especially the low-class members who are beggars in the society. The audience of his essay is the Irish who are experiencing the plight of poverty. They express resentment over the experiences of the poor living in deplorable conditions in Irish low-class members. Swift’s key purpose is to inform the audience of issues experienced in Ireland, mainly because of the economic conditions that have failed to consider the rights of low-class society members. In his essay, Swift uses the three rhetorical appeals; ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos refers to the appeal to asserting credibility in the issue that is being addressed. First, Swift expresses the necessity to have a proposal on how to address the population problem in Ireland. He refers to having thought of the issue over a long time, many years. In his viewpoint, addressing the conditions that the poor Irish population is an important subject. He refers to having turned his thoughts, over a long time, concerning the problem, which has been part of agenda that Irish policy makers and the government should address. He refers to his though as informed by the principles of gentleness and concern to the society members’ problems. His justifications make his point credible and, therefore, worth addressing. Concerning his proposal, Swift highlights that a young person aged below twelve is no saleable. Instead, a young and well-nursed healthy child would make a nourishing food when sold. To convince readers of the viability of his proposal, Swift refers to the proposal that he has conducted the research on turning young children even from the American Society. As such, the proposal would be beneficial to address the condition in Ireland; to uplift the low-class society members most of whom are beggars. By using logos, Swift strives to prove that the proposal is logical and addresses a condition that demands immediate solutions. In essence, Swift appeals to readers to accept his viewpoints as worthy of implementing based on their practicality and effectiveness in addressing the conditions and experiences of the society members. He uses statistical information to express his knowledge of the Irish population. He expresses that the estimated population in Ireland is nearly a million and a half. Among the population Swift writes that there is an estimate of two hundred thousand couples. Furthermore, Swift purposes to express that the low class in Ireland by expressing the escalating cost incurred by the poor to nurse their young children. The high cost, therefore, is a justification to present plausible proposals on reducing the burden on the population. The fact the low class is experiencing problems to bring up their children makes their situation that necessitates remedy. Besides, he uses the technique of comparison to emphasize the need to implement his proposals. For instance, Swift highlights that the sale of young children for use as food is a common and acceptable practice in the island off Formosa. Given humans are similar; the same practice could be adopted in Ireland if it would present a viable solution to their challenges. In Formosa, for instance, there are acceptable and common practices such as the sale of plump girls. Swift’s proposal, therefore, aims to improve the living conditions of poor Irish nationals. Using examples explicates the necessity to adopt the proposal by Irish policy makers and the government. The use of pathos entails the appeal to emotions of readers and listeners.
Essentially, the essay by Swift appeals to the challenges that the poor members face concerning the high cost of nursing their children. Besides leading deplorable lifestyles of low economic status, these Irish families experience other conditions such as homelessness. Attempts to address their economic conditions is an exemplary motive aimed at enhancing their lifestyles and addressing such other issues as homelessness. He writes that whoever can have a proposal agreed by all parties on how to address the problem, that is currently deplorable would help save the situation. He writes that its proponents welcome a cheap strategy that would reduce the cost for the Irish poor population. He highlights the possibility that children, when used as food, can make a delicious meal. In essence, the proposal would be able to solve other challenges as food insecurity. It would grant food for a hundred thousand of other people who may not have such delicacies. He appeals to the emotions of those who share the sentiments of similar challenges experienced by fellow Irish
citizens. The use of voice is evident in the argument. When referring to the society that is divided based on class, Swift uses scientific voice to refer to the low-class members. He refers to them as beggars of the female sex. They have four or six children. Swift refer to women as the female sex, which is a scientific language. Using scientific language in the essay is a perfect way to enhance promote readers’ comprehension of the concept of overpopulation and its relation to the female sex. Most beggars are women in the street; a causative factor to the increase in population among the low-class members. Application of style in the essay is evident through such features as irony and elements of sarcasm. It is ironical that Swift proposes the selling of poor citizens’ children while, in reality, he does not appeal to the course. Swift concludes by expressing the fact that he, being the author who proposes the alternatives, does not have a personal interest in its promotion. He manages to express the true motives of his ideas in the essay. As expressed at the end of his essay, he does not promote the implementation of his strategy. Conclusively, the essay involves an exemplary way to convince readers of the perception and viewpoint that Swift expresses. The use of rhetorical analysis in the essay renders it convincing.
“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.
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
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.
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.
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 he 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.
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
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. He wanted to shock his readers by proposing his “modest” proposal. He presents selling babies as food to reduce overpopulation. This causes the reader to disregard this suggestion. Swift wanted to raise awareness on the issue that was haunting Ireland. Throughout A Modest Proposal, Swift effectively uses verbal irony, diction, and sentence structure to achieve his purpose of making people realize that there are problems in society that needed to be handled in a reasonable manner. He also wanted to help advance the country’s trade, provide for infants, relieve the poor and help the rich. Swift ultimately wanted to get people thinking about actual solutions that could solve their current problems.
Jonathan Swift is the king of satire, known for his seemingly unorthodox works throughout the early 18th century. Swift capitalizes on his arguments by hooking a targeted audience with expert use of logic, tragedy, and character. In “A Modest Proposal” Swift uses exaggerated rhetoric and irony to emphasize his disdain for the troubles facing Ireland throughout the turn of the 17th century. Most of Ireland has succumbed to poverty due to English bullying and therefore Swift developed a do-it-yourself solution for those most affected by these hard times. Jonathan Swift effectively persuades poverty-stricken mothers to sell their needy children as consumable meat for Ireland’s betterment through the use of ethos, pathos, and logos in his satire “A Modest Proposal.”
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...
A Modern Proposal is a satirical essay written by Jonathan Swift in 1729. Swift was unhappy with the way that the Irish politicians were running the country, and the poverty that ensued. The Irish nation was in a hopeless state with a great amount of poor women and children strewn throughout the streets. These poor single mothers were not only unable to care for themselves, but their children as well. With no other way to bring attention to this problem, Swift creates an amusing argument for selling children, in hopes to create a solution for the poor.
An Oxford University graduate, Jonathan Swift, in his article, A Modest Proposal, proposes a solution to Irelands growing poverty in the 18th century by proposing the selling and eating of innocent babies. Swift’s purpose is to state the benefits that the poor would gain from selling their one year old children to the wealthy to eat them. He takes on a concerning tone in order to convince the people of Ireland to consider and adopts his obscene plan.
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.
Swift desires for his readers to see his speaker as a reasonable, egalitarian man with an evident desire in fixing the mess of the present time. Obvious examples of this man’s good nature can be discovered in the first eight paragraphs. He not only quantifies but also observes and does this with a manner that is somewhat logical. This presentation serves to make the ironic nature of the proposal that arrives in paragraph 9 all the more outrageous, and all the more effective.
During the eighteenth century, Jonathan Swift was distributing pamphlets around Ireland in hopes of promoting intellectual growth in his homeland. As he noticed this was not making an impact, he decided to address the problems in Ireland with a different approach. Jonathan Swift took to paper and constructed “A Modest Proposal”, a satirical piece that proposes a humorous solution to the social, economic, and political problems in Ireland. Swift’s proposal suggests that babies who are born to poor families become a source of food for public, which benefits Ireland by reducing the overpopulation and adding to the food supply. In “A Modest Proposal”, Jonathan Swift uses satire to draw attention to his argument that the problems in Ireland are greatly affecting his homeland; in doing so, he portrays the themes of class division, suffering, and greed.