Rhetorical Analysis Of A Modest Proposal

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.

In paragraphs 29-31, Swift mentions several expedients, such as taxes, wearing homemade clothes, rejecting foreign luxury, curing vices among women, instilling the virtues of patriotism, taxing the absentees, and rejecting divisiveness while promoting honest, industry, and skill. Swift’s speaker stated at the end of all his expending, “How preceptors!” Swift’s rhetorical purpose is to make the reader realize that he is ironic as well as understand what he actually stands for. The reader learns that Swift is forced to resort to ironic tone to reveal his true intention, which would otherwise go unnoticed. Swift is ironic because there is no way his expedients could succeed in a time that Ireland was in, he was mainly trying to highly the economic problems affecting the county at the time.

In Jonathan Swift’s satire, “A Modest Proposal”, Swift writes about the starving people of Ireland in the early 1700’s. He makes a wild and absurd proposal to help remedy the problems of overpopulation and poverty. Swift wants to make a political statement by using the “children” as satire to grasp the attention of the audience - the English people, the Irish politicians and the rich – and make them aware of the political, moral, and social problems. In “A Modest Proposal”, Swift’s arguments are presented effectively by using pathos (emotional appeal), ethos (ethics and values), and logos (logic reasoning and facts).

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.

According to Jonathan Swift a plump baby on the dinner table is better than pork. Swift made this proposal to the people of Ireland in the form of a pamphlet named A Modest Proposal in 1729. Swift use many tactics to persuade his audience such as satire, ethos, and logos that eating babies was the way to go.

Jonathan swift begins by mocking and blaming the mothers of the children by telling them that they should engage or find themselves in working to earn an honest living instead of strolling to beg for alms. He also predicts tough future for these children that when they grow up they will turn to be thieves. This is simply because the parents did not train their children the modest way of life.

Do you ever wonder how journalists get away with presenting overly biased information through blog sites and news articles? Reporters have been doing this for years, and because of the law enforcement's inability to regulate what gets broadcasted through the media, these articles remain the leading culprits for false interpretation by the audience. A Modest Proposal is a prime example of how easy it is to manipulate the media by the way Swift conjures up what seems to be the “only solution” for the poverty issues in Ireland. Although the idea of “eating children to save money” seems absurd today, the citizens actually believed it to be a probable solution at the time. Swift influenced the viewpoints of his readers by the way he presented logical statistics in his work, making him seem as a credible source to onlookers who had no prior knowledge on the topic.

Swift wants the reader to describe the persona he adopts as one with a deep understanding of the deplorable circumstances in Ireland, so that he is deemed reasonable in his proposed solution for the state of the kingdom. He successfully achieves this by incorporating thorough descriptions of his plan, such as in the explanation having 20,000 poor children reserved for breeding and the remaining 100,000 used as sustenance for the rest of the populace. Swift also forms a solid argument by appealing to pathos in addressing heartbreaking topics such as, “the mothers who, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants,” which promotes sympathy in the readers, thereby influencing them to agree with his proposal to counteract such unfortunate circumstances.

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 Jonathan Swift's essay "A Modest Proposal", he discusses the problem with the number of poor children in the streets whose families are too poor to support them. Swift comes up with a plan to solve this problem that will hopefully help the number of poor children. The plan is to eat the children because he believes that they are going to be an excellent source of food for anybody. The satirical essay mocks how the rich treat the poor as if they are poor animals. Throughout the essay, Swift uses the rhetorical appeals, ethos, pathos and logos to convince the audience to agree with his solution.

"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift is a satirical essay that is focused at exposing the dreadful life the poor citizens of Ireland had to go through. The author evidently blames the wealthy individuals for the situation.Swift, with a strategical and powerful use of rhetorical devices such as irony and appeal to emotions, effectively points out the real solution for the horrific condition of Ireland.

"The Rape of the Lock", written by Alexander Pope, and "A Modest Proposal", written by Jonathan Swift, are both pieces that are well-known for being satires. A satire is a piece of literature that uses irony and comical devices to get a point across to its audience. "The Rape of the Lock" and "A Modest Proposal" may both be satires, but they both have very different methods of delivery and execution. I believe that "A Modest Proposal" is more effective in its mode of attack. It is more vicious and scornful as opposed to "The Rape of the Lock". This vicious nature helps get the point across more easily, by stirring up the people. Also, Juvenalian Satire usually attacks a more serious matter, as this is the case when comparing "A Modest Proposal"

Starting with the title, "A Modest Proposal For Preventing the Children of Poor People in