modest proposal

530 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: A modest proposal jonathan swift

Jonathan Swift offers an outrageous solution to the problem of overpopulation and mistreatment of the people of Ireland. The modest proposal, which Swift offers, is to have year old babies sold for money to sustain their parents and to nourish the affluent members of the society. The “surprise ending” of the story is when the narrator concedes that he did not consider his opinion as final and that he would accept tenable and effectual solution which could be proposed by accountable leaders. Politicians would avail the solution if they understood the misery suffered by the bloated population due to neglect by the state and initiated an internal change in the Irish government. Towards the end of the story, the narrator creates room for an amenable resolution to the problem of vast poverty. The point in the reading where I realized that the ending would be different from what the beginning suggests is where the narrator labors to give a list of measures which could be adopted to solve the problem. These measures are presented in the penultimate stages of the story, after the narrator ha...

Show More
Related

  • Rhetorical Analysis in A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

    538 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jonathan Swift is the speaker in the story, A Modest Proposal. He is also the author of many other books and stories. In the text of A Modest Proposal, Swift addresses what he believes to be a big issue in the magnificent country of Ireland, Dublin to be exact. Therefore, he proposes a solution to the problem, however, the solution is not what we would call humane, orthodox, reasonable, or even one that we would consider performing today. Swift wrote this piece for anyone that can read and comprehend what the text implies.

    Read More

  • A Modest Proposal And Let Them Eat Dog Rhetorical Analysis

    815 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the time frame that Swifts’ A Modest Proposal was written Ireland was going through political, economic, and religious struggles. In 1729 England had contrived, with the help of Irish venality, to wreck Ireland’s merchant marine, agriculture, and wool industry. Prostitutes in Swift’s paper are having kids like senseless people, but yet they can’t afford to feed them. Jonathan Swift proposes that his people should sell the babies and eat them. He thinks this would help solve the problem of over population. Swift tried to give his people pamphlets on how to fix the problem that was plaguing their country, but they ignored them. Swift says “These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants.”(1) Swift proposes that the mothers sell the babies for 8 shillings; the rich would find the child to be a delicacy and the extra money would go to the landlord. So everyone would benefit from this proposal. He does this as a way of making his people aware of what is going on in their

    Read More

  • Satirical Response To A Modest Proposal

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the 18th century Ireland was on a very serious crisis. Jonathan Swift decides to write “A Modest Proposal” as a satirical response to this crisis. In that essay he gives a solution for each of the problems that Ireland was having during that time. The main points that he wanted to discuss were domestic abuse, over population, poverty, thieves, and the lack of food. This crisis lead the great nation of Ireland into economical struggles. By all of this problems, the parents couldn’t maintain their children so they needed a solution. Now this incredible man comes with a solution that is going to blow your mind, Swift decides to give them a proposal. It was a really uncommon one but very helpful for them. This proposal is going to stabilize once again the country of Ireland.

    Read More

  • Pathos In A Modest Proposal

    755 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Conformity In 'Beautiful Monsters' By Eric Puchner

    1284 Words  | 3 Pages

    Swift supports Puchner’s theme of a lack of individuality which conveys how humans are losing their humanity by using Ireland’s economic issue which forces the poor to conform to the idea of selling their babies. Swift’s story, “A Modest Proposal”, is intriguing due to the fact that he uses Irelands misfortune to suggest a way to bounce back from this economic crisis which so happens to be eating kids from poor parents who couldn’t afford to raise it. In “A Modest Proposal” Swift states that “I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for Landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the Parents, seem to have the best Title to the Children” (Swift 33). For Swift growing up in Ireland, he

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis: A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

    1109 Words  | 3 Pages

    A “Modest Proposal” is written by a man who had been exiled from England and forced to live among Irish citizens for many years during which he observed major problems in Ireland that needed a solution. The writer of this piece is Jonathan Swift, and in his proposal, “The Modest Proposal,” Swift purpose is to offer a possible solution to the growing problem of the homeless and poverty stricken women and children on the streets of Ireland. Swift adopts a caring tone in order to make his proposal sound reasonable to his audience, trying to convince them that he truly cares about the problems facing Ireland’s poor and that making the children of the poor readily available to the rich for entertainment and as a source of food would solve both the economic and social problems facing Ireland.

    Read More

  • Modest Proposal

    1039 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hunger is in America, the world’s wealthiest nation. 14.5 percent of U.S. households—nearly 49 million Americans, including 15.9 million children— struggle every day to put food on the table. In the United States, hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food, but rather the continued prevalence of poverty. We as a nation must come together to confront hunger and poverty in the United States. Therefore let no man object to my plan by proposing to provide Good Jobs for many Americans, the U.S. labor market no longer works as a reliable way to build a stable career and support their families, Work Support Programs that help to expand access to affordable health care and child care, and strengthen tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, which help working families, and Child Nutrition Programs which are critical to ending childhood hunger. When children receive the nutrition they need, they are more likely to move out of poverty as adults. (Bread for the World)

    Read More

  • A Modest Proposal - Rhetorical Analysis Essay

    737 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1729, Jonathan Swift published a pamphlet called “A Modest Proposal”. It is a satirical piece that described a radical and humorous proposal to a very serious problem. The problem Swift was attacking was the poverty and state of destitution that Ireland was in at the time. Swift wanted to bring attention to the seriousness of the problem and does so by satirically proposing to eat the babies of poor families in order to rid Ireland of poverty. Clearly, this proposal is not to be taken seriously, but merely to prompt others to work to better the state of the nation. Swift hoped to reach not only the people of Ireland who he was calling to action, but the British, who were oppressing the poor. He writes with contempt for those who are oppressing the Irish and also dissatisfaction with the people in Ireland themselves to be oppressed.

    Read More

  • In a Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift, the main objective was to draw

    994 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is a great contradiction and absurdity that a husband and father proposes the idea of cannibalism. The narrator does not want the reader to agree that the solution to overpopulation and poverty in Ireland is to eat babies; he wants the reader to see it. needs to be a practical solution. Although something seems one way to the narrator, Jonathan Swift wants. the reader to see it in the opposite light.

    Read More

  • A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poverty

    532 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jonathan Swift says that the people, politicians, and English are all at fault for the terrible state and poverty of Ireland. Swift states that if a poor infant passes the dangerous years of childhood, they would “leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain” or “they would sell themselves to the Barbados,” as indentured servants.

    Read More

  • A Modest Proposal

    1099 Words  | 3 Pages

    Swift begins his argument by stating his view on the situation and displaying his annoyance. He states, "It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country when they see the streets, roads, and cabin doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms" (Swift 1). He uses melancholic imagery for the readers to sympathize with the suffering children and to understand their situation. Similarly, Swift displays his disgust for the wealthy by stating that "There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children… which would move tears in the most savage and inhumane beast" (1). He talks about abortion and shows how ghastly and disheartening the practice is. Clearly, Swift makes use of pathos to slowly gain the reader’s confidence in preparation for his appalling proposal. He knows that many will be emotionally affected by his proposal because no one would want their own c...

    Read More

  • Humor as an Argument: A Modest Proposal

    690 Words  | 2 Pages

    The essay, A Modest Proposal, is a proposal to end the economic dilemma in Ireland by selling the poor’s children, at the age of one, for food. The narrator states, “I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their father, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom a very great additional grievance” (Swift). According to this proposal, by selling the children for food to the wealthy in Ireland many problems will be resolved. The poor mothers will earn money to live on and will not have to raise children, the wealthy will have a new meat source and “an increase in his own popularity among his tenants” (Sparknotes), and the economy will improve because of all of the market action. In the narrator’s eyes, this proposal equals an all around win for the people of Ireland and he cannot see any objection to his plan.

    Read More

  • American Idiot

    363 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Song “American Idiot” by Green Day uses techniques to engage the audience to interoperate the issues. Green day through their style of music convey issues such as the medias over powering effect on society, greed and the division of the United States of American over political issues. Green Day’s negative stance on the issues through these techniques conveys the audience to agree with the main issues being focused.

    Read More

  • A Modest Proposal A Satire

    438 Words  | 1 Pages

    By being so ridiculous, such as comparing poor woman to dams and promoting carnivorous behaviors not in favor of children, Swift highlights key issues and forces the people of Ireland to see that there are, indeed, simpler solutions. At one point, Jonathan suggests that only the rich can eat the children because the meal would be quite expensive. In an attempt to expose the wealthy as wrongdoers, he uses irony and satire. Ironically, the children would be prepared for the wealthy and not the starving who sacrificed them. Nevertheless, he later divulges his remedy. Swifts speaks of rallying each other to create a sense of national pride, to industrialize Ireland, decrease importing luxurious items and dispel the want of them, boost the local economy,

    Read More

  • Neon Angel

    558 Words  | 2 Pages

    The dramatic recreation of the life of a 70's teenage rock star, Cherie Currie. Known as the other twin when she was younger, Cherie often felt “like the ugly stepsister,” (pg. 7) being overshadowed by her identical twin Marie. Being a victim of a rocky childhood after her alcoholic father and her over dramatic, actress of a mother divorced, Cherie often felt as if she were an outcast. In school Cherie was teased and called a freak because of her outlandish style of clothing and her obsession with David Bowie. Finding solace at local clubs that possessed older peers with the same outlook on life a Cherie, she began to find herself. One lucky night, Cherie was acquainted with two people that would change her life forever. A future band mate, Joan Jett and their future sordid band manager Kim Fowley as the two introduced themselves, Cherie's life changed forever. At a tender age of fifteen, Cherie plummeted into a life of rock and roll. Under the wing of Kim Fowley “loud, and as rude as hell” (pg. 80) Cherie found herself using countless drugs, and slipping into a fog of being a rock...

    Read More

More about modest proposal

Open Document