Jonathan Swift Rhetorical Analysis

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

Furthermore, Swift also creates a strong argument throughout this essay, with the use of logos; appealing to logic and his use of statistics. Swift states that the “number of souls in this kingdom…of these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couples who wives are breeders”; furthermore proposing that an infant can be sold for “two shillings per anun” and “with eight shillings net profit the mother will also benefit and be fit for work to produce another child.” Another quote that implies the reader of his logic and reason , is when he states in these lines that an infant’s flesh can be seasoned throughout the year “with a little pepper or salt…especially in the winter.” He also states that the carcass

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.

During the early 1700s in Ireland, there were countless people that lived in poverty. Families that had many children at that time were usually the families that lived in poverty. If they chose to sell those children instead of keeping them, at the end of every year they would make 8 shillings for every kid they did not keep. In time, it would have been more beneficial for the poor families to sell their children because they would be making money on them (Baker). In 1729, a man named Jonathan Swift believed that he found a way to eliminate some of that poverty and feed the rich with the same solution. To propose his theory, he wrote “A Modest Proposal.” He wanted the poor people to give up their children as necessary evil. In the essay, Jonathan Swift challenges the status quo of the time and place in which it was written by saying people should sell and eat children and believing that women should be breeders (Swift).

Johnathan Swift wrote Modest Proposal with the idea to better humanity.. When you first read it you miss what the true message is. You think “Man this guy is a monster!” or “He’s sick!”, but once you reach the end the true meaning of the proposal hits you. When Jonathan Swift wrote a Modest Proposal he tried to get his audience to see the problem by taking it and providing an unethical and inhumane solution then using rhetorical devices to bring out people’s emotions.

Throughout Swift’s content, he uses rhetorical devices such as pathos, logos, and ethos. Jonathan Swift intelligently uses pathos to play a huge roll on people’s emotion in an effort to convince them of the legitimacy of his argument, “… and butchers we may be assured will not be wanting, although I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife, as we do roasting pigs,” (689). Logos appeals to the logical thinking of the audience is introduced in support of his case. Swift gives the logical portion by using numbers to show how many unfortunate babies would meet their demise yearly, “… the hundred and twenty thousand children, already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one fourth part to be males… one male will be sufficient to serve four Females. That the remaining hundred thousand may at a year old be offered in sale,” (689). Ethos was shown when he talked to high authority people about the situation, “Infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March... For we are told by a grave author, an eminent French physician… there are more children born in Roman Catholic countries about nine months after Lent,”

Swift appeals to pathos to make the audience feel disgust and is made through exaggeration. Swift makes a plan to sell children of beggars as food and females “ may be Breed, whereof only one fourth part to be Males”. He exaggerates it by going so far as to calculate the thousands of children to sell for food and how many females to turn into breeders. Then he goes on to describe the suffering of the people that “ they are every Day dying, and rotting, by cold, and famine, and filth, and vermin”.

Is eating kids the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about ending poverty and starvation? In “A Modest Proposal,” Jonathan Swift proclaims to the people that sacrificing young children to be eaten will help end the starvation in Ireland. Swift is trying to shock, but at the same time inform the Irish about the dilemma. Also, the narrator shows his seriousness by providing statistics on how some children cannot be eaten because of disease and how the others can be sacrificed. In "A Modest Proposal," Swift uses ethos, pathos, and logos, and rhetorical devices to convey his actual purpose and attitude which differs from the narrator's proposal and attitude.

“We can incur no damage in disobliging England.” “First as things now stand how will they be able to find food and raiment for a hundred thousand useless mouths and backs.” By telling the people that his plan can solve Ireland's problems without hurting England and also calling Irishmen useless. Swift says these things to appeal to the citizens emotions of hatred. Swift also uses Ethos in this essay. “As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many years, upon this important subject.” By telling the people that he has been observing what was going on in Ireland for many years it gives him credibility that he knows what he is talking about. “As I have been informed by a principal gentleman in the county of Cavan.” “I am assured by our merchant,that a boy or a girl before twelve years old is is no saleable.” In order to give himself and what he is proposing more credibility, the speaker enlist the help of other people who have either witness or are involved with what he is proposing and all of them say that the proposal has benefits.

Swift refers to his essay as unserious by becoming more insincere in order to show how horrific his proposal is. He late uses his dishonesty and insincerity to his benefit to show what his true meaning behind his proposal. He states that he, [has] the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work” (Swift 7). Swift discusses about having a low personal interest in killing all the children because of how might the audience think he’s untrustworthy and insincere. His audience must think that of him due to the fact of how easy it is for him explain that killing children would be the best solution. He shows how he has no personal connection to his proposal because of the fact that he is still assumed to be insincere and untruthful. Swift also might not have any personal relationship to his proposal since his children are above the age he provides people when insisting they sell their kids. In addition, Swift suggests that through his insincerity there will be another problem presented although not as major as the problem at hand. He still continues on with his proposal keeping in mind that there will be conflict in the future. Swift states that, “it will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of papists among us” (Swift 3). He expresses that there will another collateral

In the counter-argument for paragraph 19, Swift addresses the “aged, diseased, or maimed” (Swift, 19) children who may provide tainted and undesirable meat. To begin his rebuttal, Swift acknowledges the fact that thousands of poor children will die by “cold, and famine, and filth, and vermin” (Swift, para 19). This eliminates the idea that the lives of poor children will be spared if they are not eaten, rationalizing Swift’s proposal. Swift further rationalizes his counter argument by suggesting that eating and skinning children will provide benefits that exceed the cost. He argues that poor children greatly burden the society, so they should be removed: poor children “cannot get Work” (Swift, para 19) and will never be able to perform it due to malnourishment. Although this whole counter-argument attempts to support his proposal, it remains greatly ineffective because it covers a concern that essentially no readers will have: the audience is most likely not considering what tained children's meat will taste like. In addition, the counterargument completely avoids the primary opposing view to his proposal, which is the moral confliction and inhumanity of eating and skinning children. The author likely uses this burlesque style counter-argument to provide a hint for the audience that satire is being employed.

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.

There are downsides to this plan, but they don't outweigh the positives. Slaughterhouses will have to be built to make it more convenient to produce food. Along with that citizens may be outraged because we are eating their children, but hey, they won't be hungry anymore, right? Overall, Mr. Swift's proposal is a genius idea and should be implicated immediately. Please, Your Majesty, if you care about the starving people of your city, please consider this proposal.

Jonathan Swift, in his essay “A Modest Proposal”, effectively utilizes an extended metaphor in order to convey his message that we must take action against widespread poverty. The satirical point employed suggests that poor children be eaten in order to decrease the surplus population, and is efficacious due to the fact that in such a terrible state of affairs, cannibalism can be logically defended as a viable solution. Swift’s essay, written in 1729, clearly precedes the existing social programs in effect throughout much of the first world. However, the ominous reality is that Swift’s essay can just as effectively be used as a comparison, albeit a figurative one, to modern day society, if our current welfare spending continues.