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As I’m trying to navigate through the crowded hallway I find myself at standstill in front of the doorway leading to the stairwell. There must be too many people trying to get onto the stairs at the same time. “We’re going to be late to class again.” My friend announces. I sigh before responding, “Maybe if there weren’t so many people at this already cramped school we wouldn’t be late all the time.” My friend laughs and then proposes an idea, “Maybe if we just ate all the freshman we wouldn’t be so crowded.”
A Modest Proposal is a satirical essay written by Jonathan Swift and published in 1729, in which he creates a rather droll speaker who offers a solution to the issue of overpopulation and poverty in Dublin, Ireland. The suggestion details
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a system where infants would be sold as food and the wealthier upper tier would purchase and feast upon them. The speaker argues that through his offer economic and political issues, such as the income of the poor Irish families, overpopulation, and unemployment would be solved. The profits made from selling their children would help pay rent, provide the poor with something of value, and rid the “breeders” of the expenditure of raising children. Throughout the satire, Swift uses an abundance of rhetorical appeals, an ironic speaker, and symbolism to effectively get his message across. Although some may believe Swift’s satire was written in bad taste, I believe his consistent use of irony and metaphors brings upon true emotions, provoking the inspiration necessary to make a change. (172) Swift’s satire is written with the intention of causing the reader to loathe the proposer, however, empathize with the Irish. The irony is prevalent as Swift is mimicking the false consideration of other pamphlets written by either the wealthier upper tier of the population or the British tyranny. Social and economic issues were proposed to be fixed by cure-all solutions, and the poor were referred to as commodities. Swift’s speaker suggests that the children of the poor should be sold as meals, figuring this would solve the social and economic issues in Ireland. This essentially dehumanizes the poor by using words usually reserved for animals, for example referring to them as “breeders.” The inclusion of statistics, having his speaker assume the role of a faux arithmetician, is another jab at the hypocrisy of the contemporaries of the time. Swift’s speaker provides a brief calculation of how he figures there are “…a hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents annually born…” making the poor sound more like assets rather than people. The combination of these two examples degrades the Irish population, developing antipathy for the speaker, and in turn, causes the reader to want to make a change. From the first sentence of the essay, “It is a melancholy object… the roads and cabin doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four of six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for alms.” Swift cultivates a dreary image of Ireland to the reader, alluding to an austere future for the poverty-stricken population.
By using vivid imagery Swift tugs at the heartstrings of the reader, consequentially appealing to the use of pathos. Further into the essay, as well as several times throughout, Swift’s speaker delves into the concept of ridding the burden of children by selling them as meals. The vile image conceived by the description of a child as “a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food” as well as the mentioning the child could be “stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled” is an image that nearly forces the reader to turn …show more content…
away. Swift also integrates logic that almost sounds feasible.
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
infants. Swift establishes the speaker as someone who is respectful and has an upright character, appealing to ethos. In the fifth paragraph he mentions that he has put much thought into the matter at hand “…having turned my thoughts for many years… and maturely weighed the several schemes of our projectors…” At the end of the essay, Swift is sure to mention that the speaker has no personal ulterior motive, “I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not that least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country…” This accredits the speaker as an Irishman who is devoted to his country simply wishing to see it prosper. Swift also includes sources throughout the essay to support his speaker’s logic. To confirm that using children as meals would be an appropriate solution and that readers would buy into it Swift incorporates lines like “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London…” and “…for we are told by a grave author, an eminent French physician…” These sentences give credibility to the speaker’s proposal, effectively creating a more persuasive piece. Swift’s use of an ironic speaker and rhetoric appeals throughout the piece fabricate it into a proper demonstration of the use of rhetoric. Using shocking symbolism and variants of persuasion provoke the emotions necessary the result in a significant change in society.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” is a classic piece of satire written in an attempt to draw attention to a serious problem. He does extremely well in providing proof that his solution will be beneficial and instructions as to how it would be implemented. Overall, Swift wrote this proposal to get the people of Ireland to take their predicament seriously and inspire people to come up with solutions that are sincere and will have a lasting and uplifting effect on the country.
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.
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
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 ...
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...
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.
Swift wrote his proposal for those that were tired of looking at poor children of Ireland. He starts out explaining the situation in Ireland regarding single poor mothers that have three to six children and cannot afford to feed or clothe them. The children of the poor are a burden and a disgrace for Ireland. He suggests that a certain number of the kids be set aside for breeding and the rest be auctioned off for consumption when they reach a year old. Swift backs his proposal with six key points. One, there will be a reduction of "papists" in the country. Two, the poor will have some valuable assets to help them with their economic needs. Three, the new goods will burst economy. Four, the parent/s will gain money and will not have to support their children year after year. Five, "would bring great custom to taverns." Six, there would be a greater incentive to marry and better child rearing practices.
The contrary title juxtaposes the content of being a “modest” proposal, as the anticipation of selling and eating young children in order to benefit Ireland’s economy is not a polite nor considerate gesture. Swift indicates his motive, through the contextual references and visual imagery of the “beggars” and “helpless infants” subjecting the reader to view the reality downfall of the Irish people’s deprivation and oppression. The paradox used to state humanity in Ireland as a “lawful occupation of begging” illustrates the situation they are facing with “labourers” and “farmers” categorised ironically as this “occupation”. The structure flow of this essay is gradually intensified, as the problem of the depressed economic conditions of Ireland, is supported through statistical evidence, which authenticate and reinforce the argument as the ironic “only”, in “there only remain a hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents”, confront the reader as this number is large raising the issue of overabundance within Ireland. Swift’s mock serious tone of voice, is accompanied by a sense of superiority as he “proposes” his own “thoughts”, and “humbly” offers them to the public. This outrageous thought Swift conducts of killing, eating and selling the children
Jonathan Swift’s, “A Modest Proposal” 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 at an idea of 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.