A Modest Proposal Rhetorical Analysis

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

A Modest Proposal is a deeply ironic and humanistic essay by what it denounces. Swift proposes that the poor of the country sell their children aged one year to those who will be able to afford this "delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food". This provocative proposition denounces the selfishness, inhumanity, and injustice of political economy: if the poor are devoured, figuratively, by politicians and the rich, as well as propose that they are also literally. Exclusion becomes ingestion. It also reveals a certain conception of the human being whose reason and common sense are doubtful.

While one child receives a new gadget, another receives even more hunger. Although that truth is difficult to swallow, the reality is that there are a few children born into wealth and many others into extreme poverty; worst part is that the vast majorities of those children later lack even the tools to change their situation. An even more gruesome reality is the one that Jonathan Swift faced when he wrote his Modest Proposal in his native Ireland. Besides the lack of wealth, there were many issues such as mothers who were not allowed to work for their needs, or the handcuffing feudal system. Then there was the discussion of how the greed of today is literally destroying the Earth and our children in the process. Such that the children cannot share their gadgets in one country and others share their little food in another country. But Jonathan did say he was open to any other ideas, maybe our present time has the tools to end this inequality. If nothing

In 1729, Ireland was at its worst, economically and politically, under the complete control of England. England had control over Ireland in every aspect: politically, militarily, and economically. Because England was tremendously profiting from Ireland’s dependency on them, they cared very little about the conditions that the Ireland people were having to live under. Jonathan Swift, an Ireland satirist, felt obligated to change the conditions that the people of Ireland and himself were living in. In a proposal, Swift uses extreme irony and exaggeration to bring attention to what he is truly trying to reciprocate to his audience. Through “A Modest Proposal”, Swift turns to the political leaders and the mistreated people of Ireland

A Modest Proposal was Jonathan Swift’s response to the deplorable conditions faced in Ireland. Swift’s writing brought light to the economic and social issues facing the public in an outlandish, contemptuous, and somewhat humorous way. Cannibalism, as Swift suggests, was a practical solution to the crisis’s faced during the time of his writing. Such a morally outlandish concept uses exaggeration as a tool to relay his argument, making his satire highly effective. The use of satirical responses can elicit change and provoke thought through self-reflection, humor, and criticism.

In “A Modest Proposal” Swift makes fun of rich British leaders who believe that they are better than the lower class as they see them as inconvenient and useless, Swift exaggerates their disdain for the poor by suggesting that their women should become breeders and their children a food source. Swift exaggerates the rich British leaders' feelings towards the poor to place emphasis on the absurd feeling that they are an inconvenience to the higher class. Swift makes fun of the British leaders because of their wrong and absurd feelings towards the lower class and homeless people in Ireland. Swifts’ exaggerations push the feeling of shame and wrong onto the British leaders’ to show that their feelings towards the poor are just as absurd as his exaggerations. He suggests that their women become breeders and their children a food source because if they are already an inconvenience, why (they should, or something other than why) not make them into something useful.

The “A Modest Proposal” and “A Short History of the Indians of Canada” have some differences, such as one is an essay and the other is a short story, the genre, style, purpose and content. These writing pieces have similar satirical issues that reveal ideologies, different types of social structures, humanization and marginalization of groups. Swift has an Irish humor, making fun of what past Irish families have done. While King made humor through indigenous people throughout our country. Both of these issues are supposed to be satirical, but end up sounding very wrong, which makes them very confusing to understand when reading.

On the one hand Jonathan Swift uses the satire as a way of presenting material so as to criticize comically, by making fun of the object of critique. In A Modest Proposal, Swift tells his aggravation set up at the ineptitude of Ireland's politicians, the hypocrisy of the wealthy, the tyranny of the English, and the squalor and degradation in which he sees so many Irish people living. While A Modest Proposal complains about the poor situation of an Ireland from England's exploitation, it also expresses Swift's disgust at the Irish because they can’t speak up for themselves. Swift's piece protests the utter inefficacy of Irish political leadership, and it also attacks the orientation of so many contemporary reformers toward economic utilitarianism.

Jonathan Swift, a writer, satirist, and clergyman during the period of Irish Catholic economic oppression in 18th century Ireland, used his platform to create the essay “A Modest Proposal”, which took advantage of manufactured ethical and strong emotional appeals, to spark political reform and rectify his broken country. After the initial shock of reading Swift’s essay, the intent behind it is clear; it is a work of satire. The most prevalent technique Swift employs in this work is his authoritative tone, brought on by his use of a dialect, known as “king’s english”, and his immense vocabulary. An example from the text shows this clearly as he states, “Whereas the Maintainance of an hundred thousand Children, from two Years old, and upwards,

The art of quoting and summarizing an argument is one of the main skills to acquire when it comes to writing a successful piece of work. In the book, They Say I Say the art of inserting quotations is mentioned to be one of the highest mistakes made by writers. Many insert a quote that has no frame of introduction or background information which is considered a “hit and run quote.” Readers need to be able to comprehend not only the writings, but the background information and quotes from another author writing in order to have the whole work cohesive. Dire necessity for the writer is to go back to the initial text and truly understand the background from which they are quoting to make sure their audience understands the quote and why

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.

There is poverty, woman begging with their children trailing behind them and as the grow up they would later turn to stealing. The “Proposer” sees the children as a burden to the public and brings a solution to the table. Commencing with, the mothers who cannot provide for their children will have them for a year, then sell them to wealthy men so they will slaughter the children and eat them. The Proposer is the opposite of Orwell in the essay “Shooting an Elephant”. Indeed, he is out of touch with reality, he was cold and had no feelings of guilt nor wrong. In addition, Swift made him a leader in the sense that he is from the ruling class and he believes he can change whatever was going on at the time, which is another difference between the Proposer and Orwell. Whereas, Orwell cared what everyone else thought of him, the Proposer didn’t, and he took his ideas and shared them; he knew that if he did try he could make them a reality without listening if it was the right or wrong thing to do. The Proposer had his own ideas and he thought were amazing. They were actually wicked since he would actually sell his own child to be made into dinner, too bad he was already a

Since its original publishing in 1729, Jonathan Swift’s pamphlet “A Modest Proposal” has endured for its rhetorical complexity (and sheer satirical absurdities). Through judicious use of ethos (ethical appeal), logos (logical appeal), and pathos (emotional appeal), Swift crafts a sarcastic, insincere, overly embellished argument to address Irelands food shortage and economic crisis meant to simultaneously entice and repulse readers. His audience is explicitly asked to accept the intentionally horrifying idea that the numerous children of Ireland’s poorest class can be made useful predominantly as food, but also as footwear, for wealthier citizens.

The sarcastic views of Swift’s understanding of the poverty of Ireland leads him to make a proposal for a solution to poverty, where he ignores the concern of human morale by displaying the lacking efforts of England to help. Swift uses methods that work to get or help better understand a situation, for example being sarcastic in a situation where a person wants something out of the situation by satire. The undeniable effect of satire catches the attention of England to further display the poverty of Ireland which is displayed throughout Swift’s Modest Proposal with exaggeration, incongruity and reversal.

In Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” he addresses the problem of extreme poverty and social unrest in Ireland in the early 1700s. He accordingly provides a solution: selling the children of poor men and women to be eaten. He gives this solution in the context of satire. While he may not truly believe that citizens of Ireland should eat children, he does believe that the commoners should take drastic action if the government will not aid them. To show his readers what the purpose of this essay is, he begins by providing many facts, statistics, and estimates about the destitute children and the poverty in the slums of Ireland. He moreover gives many reasons why Ireland desperately needs this, and how it will even solve things past financial difficulties. Lastly, he assures his readers that he will not reap any of the benefits he claims will be available upon use of this practice.