Analysis of Johnathan Swift´s A Modest Proposal Essay

Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” written in 1729 was his proposal “for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to he publick” (Swift, Title). This proposal included the selling, skinning and buying of babies at the age of one. This proposal that he has come up with is a very inhuman and controversial one when it comes to being socially acceptable.

When he presents his proposal in a ludicrous manner, he states that from a known friend in London, that a young child whether “stewed, roasted, baked or boiled” is the most delicious. In “The Modest Proposal” he also uses ethos in order to persuade his reader that his sources are credible. A child as an infant is said to cost more than a “boy or girl before twelve years old” because by being “assured by our merchants”, Swift proposes that being no “saleable commodity…they will not yield about three pounds.” He describes one of his acquaintances as a “true lover of his country” whose qualities he supports, was happily pleased with Swift’s proposal. Swift also makes the reader feel as if he is a man who will do anything to help and save his country.

He then uses logos. He shows that he has “…turned his thoughts for many years upon this important subject…” (Swift 2). The way that he writes is full of logos. He lists his arguments and is actually quite logical. He uses logics in his description of the proposal to show that there is a problem and he provides a logical way to fix it.

Johnathan Swift published a book called A Modest Proposal. A Modest Proposal is about the impoverished Irish and that they might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies. The problem in the story is their economy is failing and they don’t know how to fix it. So, they go to the idea of eating and selling children because they are running out of food.

Cannibalism was very familiar in 1729. More than a few in the world practiced it, even to their own children. Times now cannibalism isn't even in consideration. We call that murder. From then to now we have several different ways of a living style. People were not only desperate but very sickly back then. Love didn't matter then. Loving your children wasn't a decision. Cannibalism was a way to fight poverty in that time. Jonathan’s thoughts were to market the babies to stay economically independent. The “A modest proposal” is stated to be a coldhearted and gloomy proposal. The statement "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" was stated by Jonathan, insinuating that the poverty-stricken families of Ireland are slaves to their landlords. With the way Jonathan mentioned his cannibalism thesis, different people can and will

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.

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.

“A Modest Proposal” was written by Dr. Jonathan Swift. In this essay, Swift suggest that the poor people of Ireland should sell their children as food to the the rich men and women to help ease their economic troubles. This is not the right thing to do. To sell your own children as

Swift shows his despair from the rejection he has experienced from every caregiver or leader in his own life, just as the poor have been rejected by society, forcing them to resort to begging. He feels that something drastic will have to happen in order for things to change, otherwise the misery of being devoured by society will be upon the poor “breed for ever,” as well as himself (Swift). Perhaps this drastic change that would have to occur is already too late for Swift. Perhaps his unresolved childhood complexes are too far past that they can never be resolved, but he is still trying to resolve them through his proposal that is trying to resolve society’s large problem of poverty.

A proposal is a proposal no matter what the content contains. Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”, is anything but modest. He is making an effort to receive the attention of the citizens of Ireland. During 1729, most people are ignoring the fact that their country is suffering economically. In order to receive their undivided attention, Swift proposes that every child be sold for feeding purposes. As I began to read Swift’s proposal, I thought to myself how it was such a horrid idea. How can one think of proposal that would cause harm to someone in their country? Once I completely read Swift’s satirical proposal, it became clear to me the objective of the story was to bring to light the amount of wrongdoing that was taking place in Ireland. I am capable of relating to Swift’s proposal through his remarks of how the citizens are of a lower standing, the wealthy contain the majority of power, and the strains of the economy.

In A Modest Proposal Jonathon Swift is proposing that instead of having all of these children that nobody is able to provide for why not give birth to the children and fatten them up for the first year of their life and then sell them off, like cattle. This way there will not be any woman on the street begging with her five or six children behind her and the women would also not get abortions. Swift’s proposal makes sense, he has the facts and statistics to back up his ideas. He wrote this to mock all the other proposals that they had at this time, just to show the people how ridiculous they all sounded in their proposals. Swift states, “It would increase the care and tenderness of mothers towards their children”. Children would be less likely

A Modest Proposal was written in the year 1729 by the famous satirist Jonathan Swift. In his work he outlines the pros of eating unwanted children of Ireland for economical benefits in a time of great poverty. While the reader can obviously discard the idea of eating children, in his proposal, in a roundabout way, Swift speaks to hard pressing issues of the time.

Irony is a beautiful technique exercised to convey a message or call a certain group of people to action. This rhetorical skill is artfully used by Jonathan Swift in his pamphlet “A Modest Proposal.” The main argument for this bitingly ironic essay is to capture the attention of a disconnected and indifferent audience. Swift makes his point by stringing together a dreadfully twisted set of morally untenable positions in order to cast blame and aspersions on his intended audience. Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” employs despicably vivid satire to call for change in a world of abuse and misfortune.

In his biting political satire called ?A Modest Proposal,? Jonathan Swift seeks to create empathy for the poor through his ironic portrayal of the children of Irish beggars as commodities that can be regulated and even eaten. He is able to poke fun at the dehumanization of the multitudes of poor people in Ireland by ironically commenting on what he sees as an extension of the current situation. Swift?s essay seeks to comment on the terrible condition of starvation that a huge portion of Ireland has been forced into, and the inane rationalizations that the rich are quick to submit in order to justify the economic inequality. He is able to highlight the absurdity of these attempted

There only remain a hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents who are annually born”(5). By Swift including these statistics shows that he has well thought out this plan, and Swift has done plenty of research before coming to his conclusion. Swift later gives credibility to his friend from London by saying, “a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food”(9). All three rhetorical devices that he used were great ways to persuade the people of Ireland ,that were in poverty, that this was the best option to help them prosper.