Essay on A MODEST PROPOSAL

He addressed the English by giving them a scenario in the form of a “Proposal” in order to show them their exploiting nature. Swift proposed an idea to help escalate the country’s economic condition and lower its poverty rates. The core of his proposal was the children. He argued that poor parents should no longer bear the burden of children. Instead the children should provide for themselves and their parents by being a commodity. He explained the process similarly to that of raising and selling cattle; mothers should provide their year-old child with nourishment until he or she is fattened, then rich people would buy that child for multiple purposes. Either for feeding or luxurious purposes, those children would eventually provide for the economy. Such proposal intended to camouflage the actual exploitations practiced by the rich English. The reader then was expected to look deeper and untie the knots to discover how in fact he was exploiting the Irish. “The audience is never really let in on the joke - they're supposed to figure it out for themselves that Swift is kidding. Of course, not everybody did.”

The Irish people would have freight, terror, death and eventually peace with these changes. The potato famine started with blight being discovered by European farmers. The Irish government started to export potatoes and grains to continental Europe to help the Europeans avoid a famine (Smith, 2011). By the end of August of 1845, Ireland was freighted to find out that blight had found its way to their produce (Smith, 2011). The blight in Ireland set off a chain of events that led to the Irish people dying in more ways to get out of Ireland. The government started trying to feed their people by importing corn and grains for food (Smith, 2011). This was not enough to help the young, old and sick. Many of theIrish people were led to complete financial ruin. By the end of 1851 more than a million Irish had died due to hunger and disease exacerbated by malnutrition(Smith, 2011).The only answer for many Irish families was to take a risk and get on a coffin boat and flee to another country. North America was a safe haven for many Irish people. They dreamed of the life they would live in the U.S.A. Nearly 1 million people arrived in many cities which include New York, and Boston (Smith, 2011). When the Irish people arrived, it was a sad reality they did not think they would face. The conditions were despicable. Many families were moved into small rooms with no sanitation, ventilation, day light or electricity (Smith, 2011). The families were charged about $1.50 per week to live in extreme poverty (Smith, 2011). This led to unsanitary conditions for the communities. Diseases were able to thrive in those conditions and one of the more common disease was cholera . The Irish people usually stayed in close proximity to each other and would make a small Irish community. The Irish community strived to make money. They were only hired for unskilled jobs

In the 1700s, Ireland was under the control of the British. They also owned Northern Ireland. The British were causing immense numbers of problems for the Irish people because their policies were leaving people homeless and starving. Jonathan Swift was a man who was born and raised in Ireland during these times. He engrossed himself in Irish politics especially during this time. Swift saw the struggles of the Irish people and became outraged by their conditions. He decided to fight against the British’s actions in a unique way, hoping that it would end this time of extreme poverty for the Irish. To do so, Swift wrote the satirical essay “A Modest Proposal”, using the voice of an upper class

When Swift is describing the use of children as commodities, it is ironic because his intentions are to actually explain that the English view the whole Irish population as commodities. The English landlords are the ones responsible for Ireland’s poverty. The essay shows, through sarcasm, that the English have purposely took everything from the Irish because they view them as commodities. One example of sarcasm used to portray that idea is that the utilization of infants will be “proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children” (804). It is very apparent that Swift blames the English for Ireland’s problems. He also blames the Irish Catholics that allowed English policy to break down Ireland.

In the introduction Swift invokes the daily sight of poverty on the streets of Ireland, and how families, “are forced to employ all of their time in strolling, to beg sustenance for their helpless infants, who are, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country.” While Swift opens with a strong sense of compassion, creating a sense of empathy in the reader, his comments about woman as “breeders” and Irish who “fight for the pretender in Spain,” give some insight into his mixed loyalties. The wretched description of poverty certainly creates a need for change, but when Swift begins to attack the same poor people he claim need assistance, the quality of his delivery is compromised and the reader loses some degree of emotional investment in the story.

The speaker is a Protestant member of the Irish upper class, being Protestant in Ireland would also imply that the Swift sympathizes with the British that ruled over Southern Ireland at the time.  The British are oppressing the poor of Ireland greatly. The Irish who need to remove themselves out of this fallacious situation, leads him to his proposal, even though he claims sympathy for the predicament of the poor Catholic population which is the majority. Therefore he also holds an arrogant opinion of them, believing they are expendable since they are not bolstering themselves out of this dismal situation. He is vigorous to itemize the advantages of his proposed project for the elite, who would likely be called upon to execute it. Swift implicates

Jonathan Swift, the writer of the satirical essay A Modest Proposal, grew up and lived in Ireland during times of famine and economic struggles (Conditions). Growing up with a single mother and no father, Swift knew what hard times and struggles were like (Jonathan Swift: Biography). His essay proposes an easy solution to the economic problems going on in Ireland for both the wealthy ruling classes and the poorer classes, although his intentions and the meaning behind his words are not what would be originally thought when initially reading the essay. Through his word choices and the description of specific events of his time, Swift uses satire to grab his audience’s attention and get his own personal ideas and opinions out about all the

Swift attracts attention to the cruel mistreatment of the impoverished class of Ireland through the use of his absurd proposal, his tone, and also his insincerity.

In his proposal, Swift vents his growing distress at the inability of Ireland’s politicians, the fraud of the wealthy, of the English and the squalor and shame in which he saw so many Irish people living. But, while A Modest Proposal cry over the bleak situation of an Ireland almost totally subject to England’s abuse, it also conveys Swift’s contempt for the Irish people’s seeming inefficacy to stand up for themselves. It is not only the English, but the Irish themselves, who are accountable for their nation’s poverty stricken state. Swift makes his point by threading together an awful set of ideas in order to accuse far and wide.

In addition, the rights of Irish people, under the English, were severely lowered. Laws were put in place which prevented the Irish from taking part in politics, purchasing land, even getting an education, leaving them unable to move forwards in any way, leaving them stuck under English rule. Those who choose not to flee Ireland, as many did unsurprisingly, particularly to America if they survived the gruesome lower class journey overseas, and live under the tyranny of England faced poverty, disease, starvation, prejudice and death. It is this Ireland that Jonathan Swift focuses on in “A Modest Proposal” and wanted to make known to the rich English who took the Proposal as entertainment not caring about its true meaning.

What were the social conditions in Ireland that occasioned the writing of Jonathan Swift’s essay? Does the essay indicate what Swift considers to be the causes of these conditions? Does Swift target anybody in particular with his satire? How can you tell?

Does Swift give any true solutions to Ireland’s famine? Explain. Swift gives solutions to Ireland’s famine such as the choice of an abortion , taxing landowners, buying only domestically-manufactured goods, rejecting "foreign luxury, and more to be able to reduce the population of Ireland 4. Swift has stated that SATIRE is "a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.” What does this mean?

There was a large amount of poor people in Ireland at the time and the upper classes of people in Ireland did not like this. They needed to find a solution for this problem and therefore need someone the blame. Who better to blame for being poor than the actual poor? Once one comes out with that idea one would then need to find a solution for the problem. The problem is there is not easy solution for this.

Ireland 1845, food was suddenly scarce, money was hard to earn, and what little was earned was immediately spent for survival. The people of Ireland had grown up used to missing meals due to crop failure. However, previous crop failures couldn’t compare to the potato famine of 1845. For the next five years, the blight destroyed nearly all the potato crops and killed many Irish. About one million people died during this time in Ireland because of the starvation and disease. About two million fled the lands of Ireland in hopes of escaping the starvation, disease, death, and poverty that had taken over Ireland since the famine. The tenant farmers, who suffered would farm land that belonged to the absentee landlords. They would grow many crops, most of which were very successful. They were only allowed to keep the potato crops for their own; the rest of the crops would be harvested and exported to England. The absentee landlords lived like kings while the tenant farmers were forced to sell everything they owned so they could have money to purchase food to stay alive. When they ran out of things to sell they were then forced to scavenge for food scraps just to escape death for a while longer. The starvation and struggle of the Irish tenant farmers could have been avoided if the absentee landlords hadn’t been so greedy with collecting the rent. England could have come to the aid of the Irish people sooner than they did if they weren’t so interested in staying true to their

The Irish Potato Famine was a period of starvation, disease and emigration, and was known as one of the biggest tragedies from 1845 to 1847. Many people depended on potato crops to survive; however [comma] the potato crops acquired blight, a disease that caused the potatoes to rot while still in the ground. No good crops could be grown for two years [comma] causing Irish tenant farmers unable to pay rent and was forced off their land causing over 21,000 people to die of starvation. The Irish Potato Famine caused many people to leave Ireland to seek work overseas in areas such as England and America. The Irish Potato Famine had a big impact on the history and the economy of Ireland.