Rhetorical Analysis Of Lemuel GulliverBy William 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.

A Modest Proposal was written in 1729 by a man of the name Johnathan Swift. This is a piece of early satire. He writes this to insult the early government system and mocks the heartless attitude that they have against the poor. He does this by writing a proposal that absolutely is outlandish and unthinkable, starting by addressing the current issue. “FOR PREVENTING THE CHILDREN OF POOR PEOPLE IN IRELAND FROM BEING A BURDEN TO THEIR PARENTS OR COUNTRY, AND FOR MAKING THEM BENEFICIAL TO THE PUBLIC” (Swift 1).

In Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” Swift proposes to solve the devastating poverty in Ireland by selling children as food for wealthy families. Swift goes on to explain how this would solve all of Ireland’s problems from domestic abuse to poverty. “... a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled…” (par. 9.)Swift explains his proposal in depth, in many ways treating these children as nothing more than livestock.

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift is a story about a man named Gulliver who travels to many different islands in his quest to get home. His first encounter is with the Lilliputians on their island of Lilliput. The Lilliputians seemed rational and reasonable at first, but in reality they are not rational at all. They are revealed to be irrational because they have a corrupt court, wierd laws, and blatant discrimination.

Throughout this piece Swift uses ethos, pathos and logos to further prove his point of children being a burden to their poor parents and country and by getting rid of them great things can come out of it such as food, clothing and accessories for people. He uses the rhetorical devices to add logic, emotion and credibility to his plan. Johnathan Swift’s purpose for writing “A Modest Proposal” is to inform the public of a solution to Ireland’s poverty in a comedic way.

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.

Thesis: Swift uses rhetorical device to convey his message that the British are abusing their power against Ireland to gain land and economic boosts,and that Ireland should not only raise prices, but also self-manufacture to not depend on the British.

A Modern Proposal – A Satirical, Persuasive, MockeryPeople will always have an opinion. It is easy to judge and express our distaste to specificsituations but very few would actually offer solutions to the problem. Jonathan Swift not only offered several solutions but he did it in such a way that others couldn’t help but listen, or in this case, couldn’t stop reading. Born in Ireland in 1667, Jonathan Swift was an Anglican priest. He was best known for his use of irony, exaggeration, and humor, often addressing the English and their never-ending exploitation of the Irish. During a time of terrible poverty, Swift wrote A Modest Proposal in the form of a pamphlet in 1729. Meant as a way to show people that they had not come up with relevant or effective solutions to solve the most prominent social issues of overpopulation, poverty, and abortion. Through a horrifying sarcastic idea of cannibalism, Swift is able to get his point across by presenting inhumane and unethical “solutions” to the Irish. Set in the poverty stricken Irish countryside, A Modern Proposal is filled with sarcasm, vivid imagery, and irony from the very beginning. Swift immediately addresses the problem of poverty by talking about the begging mothers with multiple children on the street. He vividlyportrays for the reader, the melancholy that runs through the streets by seeing all the women and children dressed in ragged clothing. He also mentions them begging people as they pass by. He sees a problem with the

Jonathan Swift used rhetorical strategies to create a satire that achieves his purpose. Jonathan Swift wrote this essay to address the issue of poverty in Ireland at that time. Swift demonstrates that he has put in research time, creates hyperbole, and sarcasm to create a satire that achieves his purpose.

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.

Worldwide hunger and poverty has been a problem since the beginning of time. One place that has experienced such a tragedy was Ireland in the 1700’s. Most people were impoverished and poor and no one could find a way to fix the problem. One man, Jonathan Swift, believed that he had found the solution to the problem. His plan was to take children of these impoverished families and use them as a new food source. One would simply kill the child and then prepare it in whatever they choose. Although his method was satirical, he provided enough logic and reasoning to make this idea a possibility. Thus, Jonathan Swift’s plan of eating children to save money and fix the economy is a potential plan.

Poverty has been a problem not only in Texas or the United States, but all over the world. Many types of individuals have addressed this topic for years, raised money, volunteered, but still, as much as there’s said and done, the issue hasn’t been fazed a bit. From Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal, he clarifies the poverty issued throughout Ireland in the early 1700’s and how one suggestion could change it all. Elaborated from the Literary Reference Center, “A Modest Proposal, like Gulliver’s Travels, transcends the political, social, and economic crisis that gave birth to it, woeful as they were. Packed with irony and satirical revelations of the human condition…” Swift wasn’t just writing a masterpiece, but an intended, informational

The Lilliputians are supposed to symbolize the Whigs, and Swift thinks of them as stupid and power-hungry. He demonstrates this when they search Gulliver for weapons. In Swift’s time the Whigs searched the Tories for evidence of their connections with England. He also makes fun of the thinking at the time; the Lilliputians were discriminated against whether they wore either high heels or low heels, and the ones that tried to remain neutral worse one high heel and one low heel. At the end of the book Swift demonstrates his thought on humans, when all the humans were savage and stupid, while the animals were brilliant. I believe that Swift demonstrates all his points very well. The reader is transported to the story, yet unlike most books, Swift doesn’t tell the reader exactly what to think, he insinuates it but lets the reader come to his own conclusions.

These people take all of his possessions for inspection, for they are in awe and fear of his great size. They feed him, and soon untie him but still keep him in confinement. While in his confinement, he is visited by the emperor who likes Gulliver. Gulliver learns there language and the customs of the people of Lilliput. In this book Swift, by describing the ludicrous system that Lilliput's government fashions in, is satirizing the English system of governing. He uses parallels that seem absurd at first glance but make more senses when looked at carefully.