Irishmen, educated, father and husband. All these titles make Jonathan Swift more than qualified to be the author of “A Modest Proposal,” published in the 1729. It discussed the astonishing poverty that was sweeping the Irish nation, his home country, during the early 18th century, which in his opinion was not the nations own doing. He adopts a sarcastic tone in order to display to the Irish people the injustices cast upon them, and to inspire his countrymen to rise up from poverty and stand up to those who held them down.
During the 1720’s, the Irish people were suffering dearly, due to the oppression by Great Britain. There oppression came in the form of being displaced by wealthy English people who were buying up land in Ireland and then not living there. They would proceed to rent some of their land to the Irish people at extremely high rent, which eventually led to them not being able to pay neither their rent or provide their families with food or clothes. The reason behind Swift’s proposal is simple. He is an Irishman. He has a sense of patriotic duty to attempt to help his fellow Irish people. He wants them to know that it is possible to move forward form poverty and out from under the oppression of the British. He structures his essay through a basic form of presenting an idea and then backing it up with “facts” like the growth in weight of babies or expert accounts on the taste of children from a credible source. Something that Swift just assumes that the audience will take for granted. Additionally he assumes that the audience won’t simply put his article down, taking it as the ramblings of a mad man talking about eating babies like it’s a normal everyday thing.
Jonathan Swift skillfully created a proposal about...
... middle of paper ...
...lready devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.” He tried to make the parents realize that the present they are living in will become the future of their children. Swift’s use of these appeals helped his audience to take such a ridiculous proposal as something serious. If one could see through the veil created by all the sarcasm and satirical diction they would see a man who only wants to aid his nation in its time of need
Jonathan Swift crafted an argument around a crazy idea, eating babies, but intentionally left out the opposing view to this idea. He instead chooses to present alternatives to his solution with more reasonable ones as to make the audience think about those in a way they would not have beforehand. He presented the ideas of taxing the English who live on their lands only of their own accord, the cessation of the
Rhetorically, Swift uses an outrageous argument expressed in a serious and sincere tone to point out an atrocious plan. The thought and rhetoric behind this is that if you present a claim more intense than your own, it may not sound as extreme He is also expressing the attitude of the other countries towards the Irish famine. This makes the essay such a valuable influential document, because it slams the other countries through their own unresponsiveness to the
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 to 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. Swift used irony throughout the essay, beginning with the title, “A Modest Proposal”. The irony of the title gives the audience a false idea of what the essay will be, later on he gives his argument and the title serves as an ironic statement.
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
During the 18th century Ireland was in a very serious crisis. Jonathan Swift decides to write “A Modest Proposal” as a satirical response to this crisis. In that essay he gives a solution to each of the problems that Ireland was having during that time. The main points that he wanted to discuss were domestic abuse, overpopulation, poverty, theft, and the lack of food. This crisis led the great nation of Ireland into economic struggles.
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 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 Jonathan Swift’s satire, “A Modest Proposal”, Swift writes about the starving people of Ireland in the early 1700’s. He makes a wild and absurd proposal to help remedy the problems of overpopulation and poverty. Swift wants to make a political statement by using the “children” as satire to grasp the attention of the audience - the English people, the Irish politicians and the rich – and make them aware of the political, moral, and social problems. In “A Modest Proposal”, Swift’s arguments are presented effectively by using pathos (emotional appeal), ethos (ethics and values), and logos (logic reasoning and facts).
Swift lets us know right off the bat that the fictitious author of his essay is a cultured man. One finds the first evidence of Swift’s authors formal background in the title, “A Modest Proposal: For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being A burden to Their Parents or Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to The Public.” Swift then continues to drive the point home by using complex sentences throughout the rest of the essay, as well as maintaining a relatively high level of diction (there’s not a contraction to be found in his essay). Swift uses “sustenance” in instead of “food” and “prodigious” instead of “large” to help accomplish the writers status as sophisticated. With some knowledge of the time period this essay was written in, one realizes that Swift’s fictitious author satires the way the English treated the poor during Ireland’s potato famine. It is the complex sentences and formal diction which are supposed to indicate that the author is one of Ireland’s English Occupiers.
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...
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 English thought of the Irish as savages and trash, and forced them to live in deplorable conditions. As a result, many fled Ireland. Those remaining were poor and starving. This was the Ireland Swift was writing about. In the beginning a picture is painted of poor dirty women with many children in tow, begging for scraps of food.
Swift is conscious that he would face heavy resentment. By revealing the stark contrast of emotion against children and the Irish, Swifts proposal can help validate the reason that most people don't care about the Irish. The fact that people care more about a proposal, that was constructed to be ridiculed, more than people dying of famine and disease, is more disgusting that the proposal itself. Swift appeals
By persuading his audience that his proposal will have positive results before actually starting anything, adds a personal connection, so that they would be more likely to support him. Swift constantly states the advantages of his plural, such as when he stated, “There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas!” This striaghety allows Swift to hook his audience into thinking what he wants. Since they were in a time of need, they would be more likely to listen, if someone promised a solution to their problems. If Swift chose to state his actual proposal, the basic essence of human dignity would step in and they would immediately reject the idea of devouring