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The impact of colonization on Indigenous people
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The impact of colonization on Indigenous people
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Rüveyda Zeynep Karadag
21757014
Study Skills and Research Techniques
Research Assistant Kübra Vural Özbey
21.05.2018
First Draft
A Recipe of Satirical Flavor
Jonathan Swift uses two facets while explaining his idea in “A Modest Proposal” with an ironical tone: The first one is the literal aspect that shows us the situation of the Irish people related to lack of food and proper nourishment, the second one is the metaphorical aspect that shows England and Ireland’s colonial relationship that is the English feeding on the Irish. This “feeding” is colonialism, which is associated with cannibalism to get his idea across in a metaphorical way. Jonathan Swift uses irony masterfully in his work “A Modest Proposal” in order to transmit his idea
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across as a signal to a certain indifferent audience in the 18th century. In the 18th century, which is when Swift wrote “A Modest Proposal” (1729), Ireland was in the worst condition in the whole world according to Swift (190).
With the Poyning Law by Henry VII, English oppression on Ireland had been officialized. Ireland, the first colony of England, was a Catholic nation and later when William of Orange defeated the Catholic King James II, The Irish as a result of being Catholic suffered from severe and long-term effects. (McDowall 105) The hatred between the ruling Protestant settlers and the Catholic Irish was unavoidable. This hatred resulted in cruel colonial acts towards Ireland that was dealing with shortage of food, labor and overpopulation (Bilge 74). Apart from the colonial acts that the English were imposing on the Irish, Ireland’s problems also stemmed from its dependence on agriculture. The Harvest failure and famine between 1727- 1729 were the reason of the current lack of food and the poverty that the Irish were suffering from. It is understood that Ireland’s inefficient economic policies costed the Irish dearly in the …show more content…
end. Moving on to the literal aspect that Swift presents us, he first gives out the reality of the society in Ireland. He shows us that the Irish children born in the streets either die in war for the old pretender in Spain or they become thieves, therefore he suggest a method that will make them “useful members of commonwealth” (Swift 13). He further suggests that this method will not be only confided to provide only for the children but also for the parents who “demand our charity in the streets” (Swift 15). This charity he is talking about is due to the bad situation in Ireland. This situation makes “begging” seen as a lawful occupation for the poor families have no other choice. Another issue that the Irish people have stems to the over-population ,which results in hardships in employment, in handicraft and agriculture. Hence, these newly born people wouldn’t be able to find any possible way of being useful for the commonwealth or themselves later on. Swift proves this by making a careful calculation of people or babies: “(T)he number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couple, who are able to maintain their own children, (although I apprehend there cannot be so many, under the present distresses of the kingdom) but this being granted, there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand, for those women who miscarry, or whose children die by accident or disease within the year. There only remain an hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents annually born” (Swift 35). In reality, Swift is lamenting for the situation in Ireland and is trying to make the country aware of the bitter and corrupt circumstances. “The great and noble England” deal with their “unruly subjects” so cruelly. He wishes Ireland to establish an independent country that can constitute efficient economical policies. Only then can they reach salvation. Once Swift has finished lying out the background information he reveals what his proposal is about. In order to reduce famine in Ireland and to solve the problems that Irish have, Swift humbly proposes to eat their infants would be a good solution. “(A) young healthy child well nursed, is, at one year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food” (Swift 59). These babies can be eaten by the upper classes on their dinner table. Inasmuch as these kids are delicacies, they don't come cheaply. Hence, the parents can make profit on their youngsters in the value not above of two shillings (An English unit of currency. 20 shillings equal a Pound.) (Swift 23). This actually alludes to the economic and political condition that leaves most Irish in despair because of the colonial acts of the English. Furthermore, An acquaintance of Swift suggests us methods about stewing, roasting, baking, and boiling. On top of that, Swift carefully calculates the exact weigh of how much a child should be to serve the maximum number of guests. Swift is prescient by presenting us the recipe along for his humble proposal. After the presentation of his recipe he conceals the reason behind another lampoon by saying: “I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children” (Swift 70). This displays the cruel picture of current situation in Ireland due to the destructive function of English yet again. As if Swift is implying that the English have already taken the parents jobs, lives and what was left were their children; take those too. The food metaphor is used for politics as well as economic and socio-political problems Ireland is fighting against. Swift is also blaming the Irish upper class and landlords for not paying attention to the problems of the lower classes and the English’s feeding on them (Bilge 73). Therefore, Swift undertakes some action different from the indifferent audience with his humble proposal. He offers a solution for the problems the Irish poor cause and suffer from "fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children sound useful members of the commonwealth" (Swift 52). This solution has many advantages, which he hopes “will not be liable to the least objection” (Swift 55). First of all the landlords will be happy to eat such delightful dishes. Secondly, the families of the infants will benefit as well because these poor families will earn money. This will enable the landlords to be popular among his people because the beggar mother with money in their belly will be fitter with the income she earned (Bartu). On top of that, because their infants will bring money to the household the parents will take better care of them making the children happier. The children will also be delighted to have served a purpose in their life and having helped their dear parents. Their flesh has a versatile usage since it can be both for nutrition and for “(A)dmirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentleman” (Swift 95). Last but not least, The Popish infants (Catholic) population would also lessen (Swift 83). Hence, there will be no overpopulation since the newly born children will be served as dishes. Every party is benefitting from this proposal. What a favorable idea of highest importance! In fact the literal and metaphorical act of eating here shows us that the upper classes in both Ireland and England feed on the Irish lower classes. As Bilge says in her essay "dehumanizing the lower classes is nothing but metaphorically reflecting the way these people are treated in real life" (77). The laborers are turned into slaves and commodity in the hands of the landlords, who only pay attention to their own financial gain. Swift successfully conceals his main idea with irony. He professes that he doesn’t have: “the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich.
have no children, by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing” (Swift 235).
He is trying to indicate that he is a total patriot for his country and not for himself. Meaning, the real intent was to get the people of Britain to notice that the ideas that they were coming up with were not any better than his satirical one, and that new ideas and efforts needed to come forth in order to solve the problem (“Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal Essay”).
In conclusion, “A Modest Proposal” is a pamphlet by Jonathan Swift with disturbing fantasy and rhetorical irony written on Ireland. In form and tone it looks like a "conventional philanthropic appeal to solve Ireland's economic crisis, but Swift's anonymous speaker suggests a barbarous plan, to cannibalize the nation's children" (An Analysis). The English is eating away the Irish in a never ending process. That process is the act of the oppressor upon the
oppressed. Works Cited Primary Source: Swift, Jonathan. A Modest Proposal and Other Satires. Amherst: Prometheus, 1995. Ebsco. Web. 27 Apr. 2018. Secondary Sources: "A Modest Proposal | An Analysis." All Answers Ltd. ukessays, Nov. 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2018. Bartu, Mimoza Cemre. “Analysis of ‘A Modest Proposal.’” Introduction to Britain II, Hacettepe University. 10 Apr. 2018. Course Notes. Bilge, Zeynep. “A Modest Proposal: A Satirical Recipe” Representations of Food in British Literature. Istanbul: Istanbul UP, 2013.73-77.Print. “Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal Essay” bartleb. Great books, 2016. Web. 15 Apr. 2018. McDowall, David. An Illustrated History of Britain. Edinburgh: Longman, 1989. Print.
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.
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.
If Jonathan Swift had written a serious piece simply espousing his true beliefs he would not have received as much feedback, due to the fact that there were already informational advertisements at the time and nobody was interested in reading them. The only thing that would get the people 's attention was something that would create a lasting impression, so he wrote a satirical piece with trenchant humor and mochary. “A Modest Proposal” surprised people and got them thinking about the condition of the poor in Ireland and what should be done to solve it. For example Swift states that “those who are thrifty” can use the carcass of the infant for ladies’ gloves or gentlemen’s boots. This itself can help those reading the piece to begin to think about possible solutions to the substantial issues involving the poor in Ireland. He also proposes that children that are fourteen should be consumed as well so the poor don’t have to go hungry and that it would limit the number of breeders, in an attempt to illustrate the extremity of the circumstances. His sarcastic way of joking enlisted fear in the poor and concern in the rich, helping them realise the drastic issue present in the
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
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.
In his satire, A Modest Proposal, Swift utilizes hyperbole and sarcasm to bring awareness of the unacceptable conditions of the Irish poor in the 18th century.
In “A Modest Proposal”, Swift does not blame everything on the people of Ireland. In fact, he says that the people, politicians, and English were all at fault for the horrendous state the country faced. One annoyance Swift states is that the poor infants, if they survive their childhood years, 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). He suggests that the lack of nationalism and pride in their country has led citizens to just leave instead of trying to fix the problem leading to the country 's
The essay, A Modest Proposal, is a proposal to end the economic dilemma in Ireland by selling the poor’s children, at the age of one, for food. The narrator states, “I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their father, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom a very great additional grievance” (Swift). According to this proposal, by selling the children for food to the wealthy in Ireland many problems will be resolved. The poor mothers will earn money to live on and will not have to raise children, the wealthy will have a new meat source and “an increase in his own popularity among his tenants” (Sparknotes), and the economy will improve because of all of the market action. In the narrator’s eyes, this proposal equals an all around win for the people of Ireland and he cannot see any objection to his plan.
Through the creation of a pompous, highly educated and sophisticated proposer, in Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, the targeted audience, the absentee landlords and parliament of England, and the reader naturally identify with the proposer. The proposer’s rigorous logic, serious and cynical tone deduces the ghastly proposition of cannibalism for economic, political, moral, and nationalistic gain. However, through the targeted audience’s identification with the proposer, Swift is able to propose the ironic humanity of his satirical proposal and thus indict colonial landlordism in Ireland and in Enlightenment ideals. Swift’s proposer’s tone is used for both the ostensible and actual purpose of the proposal; through the adherence to the ideals of the Enlightenment, which would be that of the targeted audience, Swift is able to critique the ideology of logic and rationality as fundamental to morality in the proposal.
Irony is a beautiful technique exercised to convey a message or call a certain group of people to action. This rhetorical skill is artfully used by Jonathan Swift in his pamphlet “A Modest Proposal.” The main argument for this mordantly ironic essay is to capture the attention of a disconnected and indifferent audience. Swift makes his point by stringing together a dreadfully twisted set of morally untenable positions in order to cast blame and aspersions on his intended audience. Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” employs despicably vivid satire to call for change in a world of abuse and misfortune.
His definition of satire is 'Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.' This is true in fact for his proposal as the people who this proposal is aimed for don't realise that Swift is talking about them until later on, and that's when they see their own reflection in Swift's Modest Proposal. This is also described as 'The iron fist in a velvet glove'. The iron fist is the reality hidden inside the 'velvet glove', the glove being the tone in which the proposal is written which is pleasant and subdued. The title alone for the proposal is described as 'Modest', which in a way is ironic as there is nothing modest about the 'devouring of the children of the poor'.
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.
Effectively ushering change in society or pointing out faults that have existed and gone unnoticed can be a daunting task for any social commentator. Often, blandly protesting grievances or concerns can fall upon deaf ears and change can be slow or non-existent. However, Jonathan Swift in his pamphlet A Modest Proposal, uses clever, targeted, and ironic criticism to bring the social state of Ireland to the attention of indolent aristocrats. He accomplishes such criticism through satire, specifically Juvenalian satire. Swift’s A Modest Proposal stands as an example of the type of satire that plays upon the audience’s emotion by creating anger concerning the indifference of the voice created. He complements such criticism with sophisticated, clever language which may be mistaken for the more docile Horatian satire. Yet, this urbane voice, coupled with irony and the substance of the proposals accentuates Swift’s motive to use anger as a force for action. Through his absurd/humorous proposals, stinging irony, and use of voice, Swift effectively portrays A Modest Proposal as a Juvenalian satire designed to stir emotions concerning the social state of Ireland.
Jonathan Swift lived during a grave era in Ireland’s history. David Oakleaf’s A Political Biography of Jonathan Swift examines Swift’s pamphleteering and his political leanings. His aim was to relate Swift’s most important writings to the cultural background around when they were produced. According to Oakleaf, Swift’s rhetoric “displayed an extremism that did not always reflect what appears to have been his actual, more conservative political position satire”. Swift called himself an Old Whig. The claim to be an Old Whig, Oakleaf suggests, was a rhetorical device Swift used to present himself as a man of principle, standing above factional politics. In Oakleaf’s account of A Modest Proposal, he believes that Swift’s piece is an expression of “his horror at human oppression” (201).
Swift’s piece of satire, ‘A Modest Proposal,” was far from offensive. The reasons are as follows:A Modest Proposal was written and based off of, legitimate and