A Modest Proposal Satire Essay

Satire is a genre of literature in which shortcomings are ridiculed and mocked, usually in a humorous way, with the intent of causing improvement. Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” is highly regarded as one of the most effective satires in the English language. He uses satire to mock the wealthy and their tendency to consume everything in their sight. While A Modest Proposal bemoans the bleak situation of an Ireland almost totally subject to England's exploitation, it also expresses Swift's utter disgust at the Irish people's seeming inability to mobilize on their own behalf. Is Swift just having fun, or does he have something serious to say? Swift is actually quite serious, he knows that there's something rotten in the state of Ireland,

A good example of this is the way Adolf Hitler viewed the Jewish people. Victims of this prejudice may not get to enjoy the same social and educational benefits as the other social group. Instead of channeling resources to help those at need, the governments of these countries choose to treat different races and creeds with prejudice and will treat others with less favoritism. Hence, this leads to poverty(Povertyhci). Swift demonstrates religious prejudice by using Irish Catholics as the focal point of his satire. Because of the stereotype that Catholics tend to have a lot of kids, they are the reason for the overpopulation of Ireland. He writes that his wealthy English friends don’t care about the poor Catholic kids, and by killing off 100,000 babies the amount of Catholics will greatly

During Swift’s life, Ireland was a colony of England. Being a colonized country, Ireland had to ship out its resources to England, leaving Ireland without enough food and resources for their own people. Without the needed resources, there are fewer jobs for the population, which increases poverty. Swift again uses satire in his proposal for boosting the economy. Much like cattle, Swift suggests that parents breed children for food. By raising children for food, the Irish economy will get a substantial boost. These children are considered a delicacy, and delicacies don’t come cheaply. Swift projects that parents will make between 8-10 shillings in profit for one child. Therefore, not only can the children’s parents make generous profit, the culinary experience will make Ireland a hot spot for tourism. In fact, Swift see’s no problem with his proposal, stating: “I can think of no one objection that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it be urged that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom”