Pathos In A Modest Proposal

Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal is an attempt to bring attention to horrible the condition in which the poor or destitute people in Ireland are living in. His argument that children of these improvised people should be sold to “the persons of quality and fortune” (A Modest Proposal) for consumption, is Swift’s gruesome way of saying you might as well eat the babies, if no one is going to actually try to fix the problems of the poor in Ireland.

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

All though he kept the use of them limited, a use of sympathy for the children by going into detail of how the children will be prepared and eaten. “A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter” (A Modest Proposal). The audience is made to feel Swift’s irritation at the situation and his unyielding attempts to relieve Ireland of the problems of the poor with his statement, But, as to myself, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, (A Modest Proposal). Swift was fed up with the rich ignoring the situation he did the only thing he thought he could do, wrote a proposal that would shock his audience into seeing the situation for what it was,