The Potato Famine in A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift

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The novel A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift is a satirical piece about the poverty of the Irish during the Irish potato famine. The author’s credentials is that swift himself is Irish and is witnessing the issue himself. The author’s purpose of writing the novel is to convince people to his proposal and help regenerate a poverty stricken nation. The audience is aimed to the Irish and wealthy. The audience is supposed to be convinced by his “genius” plan.
Ireland was facing poverty and a big depression during the 18th century. The wealthier was getting wealthier and the poor continued to get poorer. Children and babies are suffering from hunger and many parents cannot afford to care for the child. There is an abundance of children taking a rise in population in the nation. Swift makes an argument to slow the growing population of children and reduce the number of starving babies. The authors proposal is to sell the babies to the rich or any interested buyer then cook these children to a delicious taste and eat them. Or possibly, swift proposed to use the skin and other parts for an “elegant jacket” or other clothing attire. His argument is structured as a plan. This plan includes the process, the price, the quality and the possibility of the delicious taste the baby has to offer. The assumption of the proposal is it’s the last resort to fix the poverty crisis in Ireland.
Swifts character as a writer is sarcastic. In this piece the author writes in a satirical writing style, much like his other published novels. Swift is Irish and understands that the people of the nation need help to restore the wellbeing of the troubled Ireland. The authors tone to his piece is not serious. He explains how he himself would not attempt or p...

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In Swifts proposal he uses many appeals and satire to try and make a convincing proposal to save Ireland from the extreme famine and tragedies on the streets. His suggestion of killing babies and selling them for “delicious stew,” is an outrageous idea to save an economic crisis. Even though this is a satirical piece, the idea that Swifts mind was thinking and making a plan to “murder” children is gross. The proposal does have strong promises that it will fix the crisis in Ireland, but is most certainly not the correct way to do so. I believe Swift chose such a outrageous plan to catch the government heads and wealthy eye and actually realize there is a serious issue and its come to crazy proposals like this to solve the crisis. The article is quite juxtaposition by being humorous and disturbing, but very well written by the author Jonathan Swift.

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