A Good Fat Child

Desperate times often call for desperate measures, and proposals of desperate measures are often met with swift criticism if they are found to be without rational thought and merit. It is unlikely that anyone in their right mind would consider, for any amount of time, the proposal of rearing children, or properly raising them, as food to help alleviate poverty-stricken Ireland in 1729. Yet, Jonathan Swift’s suggestion was satirical brilliance, and it was a modest proposal for illuminating the cause of Ireland’s woes. The proposal was not actually eating children but placing a mirror for the reader to reflect upon. The target audience of landlords, gentlemen, and other people of stature were more than accustomed to stepping on the poor on

Swift’s plan is an ironic attempt to "find out a fair, cheap, and easy Method"(503), for converting the starving children of Ireland into "sound and useful members of the Commonwealth” (503). His “solution” is to sell a child, after he or she reaches one year of age. “Instead of being a charge upon their parents, or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding and partly to the clothing of many thousands”(503). From Swift’s perspective using the children, as food is the most efficient and cheap way to make the children a contribution rather than a burden.

In the "The Modest Proposal," by Jonathan Swift he discusses a solution to poverty in Ireland during the 18th century. Swift’s bizarre, yet well thought out plan for helping families of Ireland, who were in poverty and desperately in the need of money, was fattening children and selling them to the wealthy landowners. He thought that this would be an excellent way for children not to be a burden on their parents but be beneficial. Swift even went on to write a pamphlet telling the parents just how they could fatten their babies and the perfect age and weight for the kids to be before selling them. One of Swift’s friends goes on to give some helpful/ tasty ways that the kids can be cooked before eaten. This does not only financially support Ireland, but it also improves the social, political, and economic problems. Swift didn’t see why anyone in Ireland would disagree with such a brilliant plan that could benefit them in so many ways, except the being eaten of course. Swift even goes on to say that by shrinking the population of kids it would just be less subjects to worry about ruling over and less chaos. Swift’s idea of fattening kids to sell as food to the wealthier landowners of Ireland was one of the most brilliant solutions to solve all of the problems being brought about in Ireland.

When Swift introduced the idea of using children as a source of nourishment, a satirical stance on the proposal through the sharp contrast in moral principles from protecting children to eating them. I believe that a modern audience would understand the joke faster than Swift’s contemporaries did because the modern world is one with strong family morals. Therefore, proposing the consuming of infants would be viewed as such an absurd proposition that there would be no logical way for his argument to be

In his modest proposal, Jonathan Swift uses logical fallacies, repetition, metaphors, humor, parallelism, sarcasm and satire. The devices are effectively used to examine the attitude of the rich people towards the poor in the society. Jonathan starts by mocking the mothers for strolling in the streets begging for alms instead of looking for jobs and putting something on the tables for children to eat. Jonathan predicts that when the kids grow, they might turn out to be thieves as nobody taught these kids to earn an honest living. He uses logical fallacies to try and make the proposal modest though his line of thinking is not correct. He points out that a year-old child is nourishing and wholesome food. That a healthy child is delicious food to be prepared using any method of food preparation is outrageous. He proposes that 20,000 children preserved for bleeding purposes. This is dehumanizing children and comparing them to animals. He outlines how slaughterhouses should be build and butchers be employed to do the slaughtering of children. In his exaggeration, he goes to the point of saying that the kids will be roasted like pigs. ( ) Swift also uses irony when he says that there are about 200,000 couples whose wives are just breeders. ( ) He proposes that an arrangement is made to the rear and provide for these children. Here he compares women to animals because human beings are not bred for commercial purposes. Here he dehumanizes human beings by use of satire. He gives reasons as to why this is a good idea. First, he says that the method will decrease the number of useless Catholics in Ireland. Secondly, he claims that the government will earn from exports of the meat from Ireland. The mothers will also earn something from this breeding and a burden will be lifted off their shoulders. He also foresees that the new delicacy will be welcomed in the taverns. The marriage institution will also be enhanced because mothers will put in more effort in raising the best kids because they would fetch good prices in the markets. To support his argument, Swift is sarcastic that some parts of children's body are good for eating. He further notes that these

Those children doomed to grow up as thieves or leave for Spain or even become pirates. Swift then goes on to say that it should be the goal of everyone to find a way to make these children useful. He then states that he wishes not only to help the beggars but everyone else too. He gives estimates on how many mothers that are giving birth and how many of their children will be born and how many will die. He then goes on to how much a year old would weigh and how much money the cost would be for the meat. The next part is the shocker of this essay. He states that he hears from an American that a child at one year old is delicious regardless of how it is cooked. Swift then proposes that children at one year old should be taken and fed to the hungry. Swift then goes on to say that doing this will create a new market that will help both the poor and the rich. The rich will get a new food and will learn to feel more compassion for the poor, and the poor will have a new way to make

When one thinks of the phrase “A Modest Proposal,” does one come to think of fattening babies so they can sell as meat. In Jonathan Swift’s essay “A Modest Proposal,” Swift uses satirical writing to communicate with the reader to expose the critical situation of the poor people of Ireland. Whom besides going through a tough period of famine have to endure the overwhelming taxation rates of the English empire. The author’s proposal intends to convince the public of the incompetence of Ireland’s politicians, the lack empathy of the wealthy, the English oppression, and the inability of the Irish to mobilize themselves against this situation. Johnathan proposed an outrageous solution that the Irish folks eat their children at the age of one or sell them in the market as meet. Finally, he manifests to be open to other suggestions to help overcome the country’s crisis. The proposal was made strategically using several different parts: the text, author, audience, purpose, and setting to persuade the tax to go lower.

How desperate does a person have to be to resort to eating their own children? This is the way it was for the people of Ireland in 1729. Jonathan swift created ‘A Modest Proposal’, an essay written for the poor and the young. Ireland was going through financial depression during the time, and things were only getting worse as government officials did nothing to help the cause. But the real reason why Swift’s proposal was so effective was because of how it appealed to people’s Ethos with their sense of credibility, their Pathos with their emotions for the topic and Logos to appeal to the people’s logical reasoning.

Although I realize your concern, you have missed the point of this well thought out essay completely. Despite what you may think about A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, this essay is a satire master piece filled with irony. Swift’s essay was not intended to convince people to eat babies, but to call attention to the abuses Catholic’s face from their well-to-do Protestants. He only uses eating babies in his essay to explain to the reader the impossible burdens the Protestants are imposing on the Irish Catholics and by making their life hard, they are making a life of a new born impossible.

Swift suggests that Irish women should sell their children as food and other necessities to the rich populace in order to benefit the economy and fight the problem of overpopulation. To specify, Swift proposes if the children are sold, there would be many more utilizations of the children instead of having to survive on the streets scraping for money. He uses this ridiculous example in hope that it will benefit the rich population as well as solve the predicament of overpopulation. As he states, “Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flay the carcass;

Worldwide hunger and poverty has been a problem since the beginning of time. One place that has experienced such a tragedy was Ireland in the 1700’s. Most people were impoverished and poor and no one could find a way to fix the problem. One man, Jonathan Swift, believed that he had found the solution to the problem. His plan was to take children of these impoverished families and use them as a new food source. One would simply kill the child and then prepare it in whatever they choose. Although his method was satirical, he provided enough logic and reasoning to make this idea a possibility. Thus, Jonathan Swift’s plan of eating children to save money and fix the economy is a potential plan.

This piece written by Swift may be satirical and a horrendous idea to the common people, it would fix the problems that Dublin is having. By selling off their newborns, which they can’t afford anyway, they can make quite a bit of profit, helping with the poverty problem. Soon, they won’t have to worry about the little thieves running around because all of the children that have been stealing will have grown up and there won’t be any new children coming into the business. Lastly, with the new generation being butchered and devoured, there would be a rapid decrease in the

Ireland has had a population problem for many years now. Swift proposes a way to reduce the number of an abortion and infanticides. He speculates that woman undergo these highly immoral practices to avoid the shame of a "unwanted child". He believes raising children for food will give Ireland the economic boost it needs. About 170,000 women in Ireland can bear children. They're are quite a few different ways you can cook as a child, whether it be stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled. Young lads between the ages of 12 and 14 would make a good substitute for deer meat. One poor Irish citizen will finally have something valuable of their own. Having a spare child could come in handy when

In A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift he discusses a solution to poverty in Ireland during the 18th century. Swift’s bizarre, yet well thought out plan for helping families of Ireland, who were in poverty and desperately in the need of money, was fattening children and selling them to the wealthy landowners. He thought that this would be an excellent way for children not to be a burden on their parents but be beneficial. Swift even went on to write a pamphlet telling the parents just how they could fatten their babies and the perfect age and weight for the kids to be before selling them. One of Swift’s friends goes on to give some helpful/ tasty ways that the kids can be cooked before eaten. Swift’s proposal does not only financially

In Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, he utilizes vigorous verbalization, a rational tone, and involute grammar to convince readers that eating children will solve all the troubles in the 19th century Ireland. Swift’s overall goal in A Modest Proposal, however, is not to genuinely enhearten victualing babies, which is what makes Swift’s essay a satire, but it is instead to raise vigilance of Ireland’s conditions for living, failing political figures, and the cruel and oppressive regime brought by England.