Irish Colonized Ireland During The Early 1700s

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

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.

To me, Swift challenges the status quo in the story the most by saying how we should eat children. In the story, Swift states that at that time it costed families two shillings a year to raise a child. Jonathan believes that a man would have paid ten shillings for a “good fat child.” Within the same paragraph, he has calculated that one child will amount to approximately four meals that are extremely nutritious. Those four meals would keep the man and one person of company with full stomachs. At one point in the story the author says that an infant's flesh will be in season around march. Throughout the story there are countless examples where the author refers to eating children. In my opinion, it was not okay to eat children then, nor is it acceptable now.

Swift uses the Aristotelian proof of Ethos by quoting his American acquaintance from London by saying, "that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout."(Swift). In the fourth paragraph, it states that Swift has had thoughts on this subject for many years.

Satire produces a distortion of reality that enlightens its readers about the unadmirable traits of society by using irony and humour (Snodgrass 406). A Modest Proposal, written by Jonathan Swift in 1729, presents a satirical proposal through an anonymous proposer. The proposal argues that in order to deal with the poverty and overpopulation in Ireland, the children of the poor should be sold as food to the wealthy. It advocates that the benefits include an increase in the income of the poor and in Ireland’s economy. Swift’s A Modest Proposal has been analyzed by various scholars many of which have analyzed Swift’s persona and his critique of Ireland’s economic conditions. However, there has been little scholarly discussion on Swift’s satirical method in the text, which uses cannibalism and dehumanization. Many scholars such as Oliver W. Ferguson’s “Swift’s Saeva Indignatio and A Modest Proposal” focus on Swift’s anger towards the social classes in Ireland; and other scholars such as Thomas Lockwood’s “Swift’s Modest Proposal: An Interpretation” focus on the role of the anonymous proposer. Rather than focusing on the effect of the proposal on the contemporary audience, these scholars choose to look at the text from Swift’s view and do not consider the audience’s reaction. An investigation into the satirical form that Swift uses will be useful to discern the impact of the proposal on the public and the message it presented. This essay will attempt to address this gap by using close reading and historical evidence to explore the text’s satire through the use of cannibalism and dehumanization. By using the satirical device of dehumanization to commodify the poor people of Ireland, Swift challenges the prevailing mercantilist theory of the population being the “nation’s riches”. The problem will be investigated with a study of the contemporary mercantilist thought, a close reading of the use of dehumanization in the text and the proposer’s tone.

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.

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

In 1729 Ireland was overpopulated and riddled with poverty. Women and children lined the streets begging for food or money. In his disturbing satire, A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift suggests a unique solution to this dire situation. Swift uses specific language and calculated arguments to vent his anger with the Irish government and to create an effective argument that makes readers aware of the severity of the situation. Swift takes a cold and distant approach to his argument.

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to eat a one-year child, whether stewed, roasted, or freshly baked? Perhaps you could have the chance for that unique experience, if you were English, living around the time period, when Jonathan Swift wrote his essay “A Modest Proposal” in 1729. The main purpose of his satirical essay was to capture the attention to the problems that were experienced by the Irish people, especially at that time when the English were imposing severe taxes on them. He proposed that Irish infants could be sold as food at age one, where a young healthy one-year child would be delicious and wholesome food. He offered many advantages for his scheme; for Irish, to decrease the burden and charges upon Irish parents, to prevent voluntary abortions, and to give them a new source of income; for English, they would benefit from a new food product, and at the long run, to eliminate a social problem and reduce the number of Catholics in Ireland.

In the early 1700s, England was strangling its sister colony through mercantilism and religious persecution; these events inevitably lead to an intense famine that ravaged Ireland. During this time, Irish born political satirist Jonathan Swift proposed a number of boycotts against British oppression but was not heeded. Published in 1729, Swift, released a “modest proposal” after all his other proposals had been neglected. On its face, the ironically titled Modest Proposal suggests a seemingly ludicrous solution of cannibalism to the crisis of famine. Swift tackles the concept of the English devouring the Irish literally, through the satirization of his proposal. His theoretical plan allows him to approach the the issue sardonically, as he comes through the text as a hopelessly naive-- yet, well meaning-- humanitarian. Calling upon the aid of hyperbolic sarcasm, Swift crafts an explicit argument that relies on blatant irony to clue the audience into his implicit claim that Ireland tolerated the destruction and barbarization of Irish infrastructure and society. The cavalier manner in which Swift addresses both the current state of fragmentation and proposed anthropophagic scenario, provokes a stunned reaction in the audience.

His use of diction relating to livestock as well as his cold, calculated tones and constant appeals to foreign authority mirror and comment upon the elite?s absurb rationalization for their abuse and exploition of the dredges of society. He constantly likens beggers to animals, even comparing children to ?sheep, black cattle or swine? and even speaking of them interms of ?fore and hind quarter?s. His tone is so disturbingly uninvolved and methodical that he is able to calculate exactly how many meals a baby will serve and even pictures cannibalism as a socially acceptable occurence when ?entertaining friends.? Throughout the piece Swift constantly seeks to jusify his proposal by mentioning the suggestions he has received from his influential friends in foreign countries. This illustrates that the narrator?s mind is even farther removed from the immediate crisis and famine. As people read through the passage, Swift is able to sneakily encourage people to question the authority of their elitist leadership.

Swift’s essay “A Modest Proposal” sums up the shift in societies thinking by highlighting the plight of Ireland and the disregard of it by England in an exaggerated, over the top way much like satirical websites and television shows such as The Onion and Saturday Night Live do with current issues today. Just as Swift pointed out

In 1798, 100,000 Irish revolted in an attempt to end all British rule was brutally crushed by the opposition. As a result of this, two years later Britain introduced the British Act of Union in which Ireland was a part of the United Kingdom Penal laws against the Catholic Irish lay law from 1695 all the way until 1829 in where Ireland emancipated itself but because of the Irish lay low tactics, this was not the biggest of deals at the time. "by the mid-1800s, many high-minded English politicians and social reformers began to think that Ireland was a nation in need of transformation, that its people now needed to be yanked into the modern world by tossing out the old Gaelic traditions." Many at the time thought of Ireland being old fashioned and needed modernizing. English protestants were fed up with Irish "dawdling" doing essentially "no work". With such a bountiful amount of crops in before years of the famine (1820-1835), Irish society grew to an astonishing 8 million citizens and growing. With the increase in people, Britain passed The Act of Union, greedily taking most of Ireland's profits. Even though free trade was allowed between the two nations and tensions were at a low, Britain used Ireland as a sort of waste land for its surplus of resources. When industrialization began to play a huge factor in British success, it ended famous Irish linen and wool services putting many out of work. When the British conducted the "Poor Enquiry" survey in 1835, it concluded up to 75% of Irish were out of work and this needed to change. Under intense pressure from English Reformists, the British government enacted the Poor Law Act of 1838 in which Ireland was subsided into 130 unions (essentially counties) in which there was a board of director for each with tax payers, government officials, and the hard working class (men, women and children

At the end of the 17th century, political brochures were dispersed throughout Ireland to encourage philosophies of different savvy intellects and layman. Nonetheless, most people didn’t focus on the brochures, so Swift, who is who wrote “A Modest Proposal” takes advantage of the ignored pamphlets and develops a ludicrous suggestion. Swift’s motivation in the article was to enlighten the one-sidedness against the Irish, especially the individuals who were disadvantaged. He argues that something must be done with infants since their mothers and fathers are too poor to provide for them. Instead he suggest eating them and using them to make clothing and gloves, for example. This proposal is of course supposed to be sarcastic. To most people,

A Modest Proposal (1729) consummately maintains the reasoned voice of a promoter of social improvement who would ameliorate the poverty and hunger in Ireland by the most economic and expedient of means: selling the babies of the poor as food at the markets. The official tone enables Swift to quantify and demonstrate the degradation of Ireland, while the pose of a shared “humane” concern entraps the