When first reading A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick, commonly known as A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift, it is easy to allow the content of the essay to take you by surprise. A Modest Proposal was written by Jonathan Swift in 1729, as an answer to the problems that Ireland was facing at the time. After the first reading of the essay, one might think that Swift is a mad man and that he should be put into a mental hospital. The subject of the essay is quite shocking, but once one learns the history behind the essay, they can discover what Swift was really meaning in his essay. At first glance, this proposal seems …show more content…
to be about how the people of Ireland should eat the one year old children of beggars, in order to lessen the amount of beggars and poverty. Once you look deeper, you will learn that the essay is really about the dehumanization of the people in Ireland by England. The people of England treated those in Ireland as lesser than humans, and the people in Ireland accepted this treatment. After making multiple serious proposals to improve the state of Ireland and being denied, Jonathan Swift wrote A Modest Proposal out of anger it seems, and the entire essay is one of sarcasm. The essay starts off by basically setting the scene of Ireland, by describing the roads of Ireland being crowded by female beggars and their children who trail behind them. Swift claims that "whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children sound, useful members of the commonwealth, would deserve so well of the public as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation." The beginning of the essay seems to be leading into a legitimate proposal about how the children can be turned into a beneficial factor for the country of Ireland, rather than children "who as they grow up either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbados." The problem with that statement is that Swift seems to be against the idea of the citizens selling themselves to Barbados, but he says that their mothers sell them like they were cattle. The essay seems to begin to take a turn when Swift states that rather than being a burden on the country and their parents, that the children "shall on the contrary contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands." Swift also states that his proposal could cause voluntary abortions to cease and "that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas! too frequent among us! sacrificing the poor innocent babes I doubt more to avoid the expense than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast." This seems to be almost contradictory, considering the fact that his essay is about using one year old babies as a supply of food and clothing, specifically gloves for women and boots for men. Saying that his proposal is a better idea for women regarding unwanted children, instead of abortion was a bold statement. The essay, whether it was meant to be sarcastic or not, is offensive and I think that by including the sentience about abortion, Swift made the essay more offensive then it was already going to be. The next paragraph of the Proposal is based on the math behind Swift's idea, which calculates what he suspects in the number of poor children that are born annually, and he then states that there is not enough work for these children to be put into.
I believe that he purposely wrote the paragraph with the math and the facts behind his idea before he ever officially states his proposal, in order to get people to believe that this is a sincere idea. I personally believed that I was about to read some sort of good idea, and was not expecting what I read after this. Swift continues his essay by stating "that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled." Ones first instinct after reading this is to go back and read again to make sure they read it correctly. I think that the worst part about it is that he states that "a very knowing American" told him about this. Knowing that there is an underlying message to the entire essay, I would like to know whether or not he is meaning to say something against Americans or if he is trying to insult them. Swift then goes into detail about how many meals a young child could make and discusses how many males should be kept, which would be one-fourth. He compares his numbers to those of cattle, like cows. The way he compares the babies to farm animals adds to his underlying message about the dehumanization of the people of Ireland by England. One …show more content…
thing that Swift says that I disagree with is that a one year old baby will weigh twenty-eight pounds, on average. Maybe babies weighed more in 1729, but that would be an overweight one year old baby today. The idea behind his "proposal" is that a new born bay could live off of its mothers milk until the child was one year old, then the mother would sell the baby, as if it was cattle, for ten shillings. Swift claims that a mother should only spend about two shillings on rags or the child in his first year, so this would be an eight shilling profit for the mother. By discussing the money aspect of the idea, I think he further adds to his underlying message. He continues to add to it when he claims that the babies skin could be used to make things, such as gloves for women. The last part of the proposal by Jonathan Swift states reasons why his idea is a good one and he tries to go ahead and answer to concerns that readers may have.
He states that it will rid Ireland of some of the papists, give the poor tenants something of worth, better the economy, "breeders" will not have to worry about watching over their babies after their first year, the food will bring "great custom" to the local taverns, and it would solve the problem of single mothers and women who are having children out of wedlock. He also proposes that the "carcasses" could be eaten at weddings and christenings. Here is another example where Swift could be implying his underlying message, when he discusses how the children could be a meal served at christenings. That seems to be such a twisted and backwards idea, there is no way that Swift could have meant it in a serious manner. He also states that because of how the human flesh is, that the meat could not be preserved in salt and they would not have to worry about exportation of it. Swift makes the remark "this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, and flesh being of too tender a consistence, to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country, which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it." I believe that Swift is talking about the country of England, who he thinks has already began to dehumanized Ireland in a way. I think that by making the last part of the statement about how a
country " would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it," let's the reader understand how he feels about England. By saying this, he is basically saying that England would take advantage of Ireland and feed off of them, without helping them in return, which really was the problem in Ireland. He concludes his proposal by stating that he has no children that are under the age of nine and that his wife is too old to bear children anymore. I find this funny that he makes sure that he includes that information. Maybe he includes it so that people will not suggest that he does what his proposal states and to sell his children first. To conclude, I believe that an important part of A Modest Proposal is to read it first, without understanding that he does not mean exactly what his words say. I think that if one reads it before they understand exactly what Swift means, that it will leave more of an impact. The second important thing is to understand that the proposal is not actually a real proposal, but it is instead a satirical pamphlet. The idea behind A Modest Proposal is that England is heartless towards Ireland and that England continues to dehumanize the people of Ireland. A Modern Proposal could have been used as an eye opener to the people of England or possibly towards the people of Ireland who had denied Swift's previously ideas to help restore the country.
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.
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
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.
Jonathan Swift’s proposal would not make sense ethically to its audience unless the reader had no value for humans. In this case Swift’s proposal would make sense and would be an acceptable proposal to resolve the problems of the poor in Ireland. The following statement, “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will
He favors the poor and hopes that they will find a way out of their seemingly hopeless destitution, which is why he writes this pamphlet. He is knowledgeable in economics and societal functions, which gives him credibility in addressing the Irish people. His main argument is that babies should be eaten in an effort to make use of the poor. He assumes that his audience will be intelligent enough to analyze the satire of his piece and be willing to understand the country’s predicament. Jonathan Swift is a well-known author and satirist who graduated from Oxford University in England.
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
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.
His very different tones throughout “A Modest Proposal” helps the reader realize that the essay’s idea is absurd. Swifts tone at the beginning of the essay is very sympathetic towards the people of Ireland, but his sympathy hastily goes away when he suggests his idea. Swift changes the tone of the essay so drastically it shocks the readers by making “A Modest Proposal” very ironic to its name.
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 ...
The idea of eating all the youth in the country is obviously self-defeating and is not being seriously suggested by the writer. He is simply trying to show how desperate the lower class is in Ireland. Swift introduces the reforms he is actually suggesting, taxing absentee landlords, of encouraging the domestic economy by buying Irish goods, of discouraging pride, vanity, idleness, by dismissing them in his essay by saying that they are impractical. However, these reforms greatly differ from his ?modest proposal? because instead of the poor sacrificing their children, it would involve the rich sacrificing some of their luxuries. He is trying to point out the fact that reforms that would be practical and beneficial to the people of Ireland are being overlooked for the convenience of the rich.
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.
By Swift saying this, he is suggesting to eat the babies when they just a year old. This can be good for the economy because it brings in more food and could bring down the hunger rate if Ireland. Another reason why Swift suggestion of eating the baby could be beneficial to the people of Ireland is that it could bring down the abortion rate in Ireland, he says "It will prevent those voluntary abortion, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children..". In saying this, Swift has most certainly caught the readers attention because of what he said about eating their one year old babies. Also, eating the babies can be very nutritious according to a well known American associated with Jonathan Swift. Swift started off discussing this first for that exact reason to catch the readers attention and make them keep reading to see if what he was proposing was really eating babies. He was also explaining that the mothers will give up their babies because they are too poor to take care of the child. Johnathan Swift then went on suggesting, "The skin which artificially dressed will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen.". In saying this, Swift is simply suggesting that the children skin could be used to make gloves for women and boot for men. This may bring the readers attention more because aside from the fact that Swift suggested eating the babies, he also suggesting to use their skin for high end fashion. Although many may be shocked by this and think that it is absurd, this may actually benefit the people of Ireland because they would be able to stay warm with the gloves and look fashionable as well with the
During the time period in which Jonathan Swift wrote his proposal, the disoriented economic state of Ireland had the citizens--to a certain extent--uninformed of governmental actions, and were mostly self-reliant or dependent on those of higher social status. Women often resorted to begging as an occupation to feed their children.