Jonathan Swift Satire

Using the virile and attractive satirical writing form to witfully illustrate the issues at hand, Swift presents a picture of Ireland struck by timeless issues poverty, political and economic corruption, exploitation and lacking empathy for human beings that are still felt today in different parts of the world. Along with authors like Alexander Pope and XX, Swift was a writer who dabbled in the literary genre of satire. Gaining reputation during the 17th century, a time in which uttering atypical opinons regarding the regime no longer had you instantly punished, satire was a medium through which the authors of the time (often well-endowed) could speak out against their own supposed group as well as speak towards and for the lower classes of

This is particularly interesting since basic literacy had just recently become more common, even in the lower classes, which made this text and the opinions within available to a wider audience. While Swift decided to use his work and his status as a wealthy protestant whose opinions were at least acknowledged and then apply satire as a literary device to reach out to the often underprivileged masses, it should be noted that his approach to the problem is in itself timeless, as can be seen in the wide use and spread of satire in the entertainment business such as books, internet videos and blog posts, even in our time. Jonathan Swift decided that the best way to do this was to publish an extreme hypothetical solution to the issue of famine and poverty in the country; the Irish should see their children as resource commodities even going so far as to suggesting ways in which poor children could be disjointed and eaten to sustain the poor and entertain the

In this excerpt, Swift takes a swing at a political entity of power but is careful not to name which one specifically or what actions had previously been taken in order to curb the issues, which makes the timelessness of the work even more relevant. and what about the criticizing politics directly any different? go back to thesis

Through illustrating the vast attitude of greed among the wealthier tier of society, and using hyperbolic expression by reducing the poor to statistics, Swift appeals to the common ideal of human decency by illuminating examples of the issues of the time “which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast” (2), much like humanitarian aid organizations do to this day. A Modest Proposal is a text about the specific qualities and ideals that make human beings able to create a progressive community; compassion, self-preservation (but not at the cost of others) and a moral inclination to justice, timeless ideals we depend on even to this