Thesis For A Modest Proposal

The Modest Essay
In the excerpt “A Modest Proposal” Jonathan Swift makes a proposition to help the people of Britain and Ireland. The basis of the proposal was that the lower class people would sell their children, usually and preferably at the age of one. They would sell them to the people in the wealthy higher classes. You may ask why they would do such a thing; sell their beloved kid for money? That in itself is the proposal, for the lower classes to sell their kids to the wealthier people to eat of course. The idea is that the poor people would not have the money to raise the child and at the time there was a problem with overcrowding and famine occurring. So why not kill two birds with one stone and solve both those problems with one simple solution.

So the proposal is truly an out of the ordinary offer and when Swift had suggested this to the public he published it anonymously.

Which can tell you that he was not too keen on the idea of having his name attached to the madness of this pitch? He knew that the reaction of the public wouldn’t be good, but maybe a little funny; it was kind of like a public experiment he wanted to see what would happen maybe even to just have a laugh. Although if Swift would have published that in our generation and not released it anonymously he would probably either be considered crazy or not taken seriously, and it would probably have been a way different outcome if he would have released it not anonymous he probably would’ve been killed. So what we can take from the fact that he knew the reaction of the public to this proposal would be bad and he published it anyway shows in my opinion how he obviously thought of this proposal and

satire.
Even with all the outrageous claims made in the proposal if you really look past all your ethics and morals… The system he had built, worked quite well and it could actually have been a good way to solve the problems of famine and over population. The babies were apparently a rather delicious treat and would be sold for top dollar in good condition. So by selling your baby you are selling food and getting money for more food; because let’s be honest, no matter how heartless you are I really don’t think anyone could eat their own baby. The money would be used for less expensive food like grains and other foods that are cheap for large amounts so that the poorer people could hopefully survive without having to resort to stealing. Swift mentioned “infants: who as they grow up either turn thieves” (752). They would have more money because they would have fewer kids to have to be fed and more time to go and work for even more money. The plan could’ve been helpful at the time if there was no better way to help the people. Swift even mentioned how the husbands would treat their wives “Men would become as fond of their wives during the time of their pregnancy as they are now of their mares in foal…nor offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear of miscarriage.”(757) It may have been less respect more greed, because the woman would have been treated like cattle in this scenario, but all in all the idea could have been valuable in a society with no morals.
Now with all that being said it still has a few flaws in the proposal. Such as the fact that you literally are selling your own one year old child to be eaten! You literally could have no morals or soul I’d say; it’s such a demoralizing thing to do I feel like you couldn’t be sane if you committed to this act. I know even if times got rough I couldn’t do this because your child is something that was created with love hopefully not greed to get money. If this was an actual practice somewhere in the world I can almost guarantee that the U.S. Military would put a stop to it pretty quick. So even though the proposal was not modest it had some points that would have actually been good ideas like I said in a society with no morals.
With all that being said the proposal could be taken as a legitimate offer or as the intended satirical piece. Either way it’s still an outrageously bizarre proposal that would just really not fly in any society today. Even though the points he made would actually have helped the community because it would end starvation and over population it still would most likely never be an actual practice. Unless a Mad Max scenario took place and an apocalypse had taken place and the only way to survive is to become a savage. Even then I don’t think it would be used but who really knows, when people go in to survival mode they do things they would have never thought they would be able to carry out.