Surprise Ending: A Modest Proposal

All across America, you see the topic of “Should children be receiving participation trophies” being brought up. The idea that all kids should get some reward for being a part of the game and helping it grow. To some, it seems like an excellent idea, but to others not as much. For example, NFL linebacker James Harrison took his children 's participation trophies and gave them back to their coaches saying "EARN a real trophy." Other parents believe that their children deserve to be praised and want them to feel good for doing something they have worked hard. So which side is correct? Should we give our kids these trophies or not?

At the time A Modest Proposal was written, Ireland was in a state of extreme poverty. The country was significantly overpopulated: people were struggling to make ends meet and provide for the growing population. The author of the text, Dr. Jonathan Swift, was repulsed by the Irish government’s reluctance to institute any major changes to help resolve the levels of poverty and overpopulation present at the time. In response, he wrote this text to criticize the upper class for this level of inaction, as well as their failed attempts at resolving the issue. Through Swift’s use of satirical devices -- such as irony, hyperbole, and understatement -- he was able to convey his message to the public which was criticism about the inadequate actions being taken by the government to solve Ireland’s troubles. He believed they weren’t doing enough to help the situation at the time and wanted them to see their defeat in hopes that they would decide to finally act.

In Fred Stenson’s “In Search of a Modest Proposal” the author states, using his daughter’s first essay assignment as an example, that essays are inherently personal and should reflect the author’s own ideas, and that essay curriculums are flawed in their formulaic approach to teaching what is supposed to be a creative form of writing. Stenson’s essay uses a liberal amount of sarcasm to get his point across, and coupled with a reliance on personal examples his overall argument loses some efficacy. However, most of his irony and sarcasm are effective in their emotional appeals, and when coupled with more convincing examples and reference to authority that directly support his claim, they make for a compelling debate that is hard to refute.

Since the beginning of the 19th century, America has had to deal with the on going

The implied thesis of Swift’s “A Modest Proposal" is that 18th century Ireland would be in a better situation if the Irish society and monarchy actually treated problems such as overpopulation and poverty, While the overt thesis is that Irish people should consider eating their children and selling them to rich Englishmen to solve the issue of poverty and overpopulation in the country. They differ form one another as one focuses on eating children, while the other focuses on giving commentary through the essay itself.

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).

He appeals to the mournful emotions of the audience by using obversations of his own of the community. He says, “It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin door, crowded with beggers od the famle sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags” (Swift 404). His opening statement inmediatly tries to attach an emotional approach and introduces sensative topic. Swift does this as a way to grab your attention in order to instantly know that his readers will continue to become hooked on his proposal and take a moment to realize Ireland’s economical hardships. This outpouring emotion from the audience is a

Jonathan Swift, the writer of the satirical essay A Modest Proposal, grew up and lived in Ireland during times of famine and economic struggles (Conditions). Growing up with a single mother and no father, Swift knew what hard times and struggles were like (Jonathan Swift: Biography). His essay proposes an easy solution to the economic problems going on in Ireland for both the wealthy ruling classes and the poorer classes, although his intentions and the meaning behind his words are not what would be originally thought when initially reading the essay. Through his word choices and the description of specific events of his time, Swift uses satire to grab his audience’s attention and get his own personal ideas and opinions out about all the

“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

In “A Modest Proposal,” Jonathan Swift provides a satirical exploration of the attitudes of the wealthy people towards the underprivileged and poor children in the society. Laymen and intellectuals during the late seventeenth century distributed political pamphlets containing different ideas throughout Ireland. In his essay, Swift utilizes some of the overlooked pamphlets during this period and develops an ironic proposal. As a colony of the British, Ireland had endured long years of prejudicial discrimination and tyrannical oppression since the twelfth century. In this regard, the British dominated the political life of the Irish people. Moreover, religious divisions within Ireland were becoming apparent. Roman Catholicism was the prominent religion in most of Ireland. With the onset of Protestantism, the number of Catholics dwindled significantly. Since the Protestants became the majority in the country, they were able to lock the Catholics out from holding any positions in parliament and government. Moreover, the parliament could not convene without a direct edict of the English King. For this reason, the people of Ireland depicted growing dissatisfaction in their political, religious, and economic lives. In particular, Swift uses his essay to illustrate how bad the socio-economic status of the Irish people was during the seventeenth century. In the essay, Swift creates a narrator who speaks from the first person point of view.

Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" can be said to have a satirical surprise ending, even though the reader is well prepared for it based on the tone and style of Swift's writing and any prior knowledge of the author's intentions. Swift's final solution to the problem of overpopulation is for the poor to sell their children as food for the rich. He introduces this proposition quite early into the document "A Modest Proposal," which is why the ending is not so much as a surprise as it is an intriguing rhetorical argument. The reason why the ending might seem surprising is that it seems as if Swift may indeed be presenting a realistic argument of what can be done about overpopulation, in spite of all evidence to the contrary. A reader not used to inferring messages based on tone or style might be forgiven to misread the beginning of Swift's document. For example, a person who has never heard a sarcastic tone could very well believe that Swift was being serious; in which case the reader would continue to view Swift's proposal as reasonable and either consider him a monster or a genius. Generally, Swift uses the surprise ending to alert the readers to the absurdity of the original problem that reveals social injustices and inequities. One of the biggest surprises in Swift's document is when he states, "I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be urged, that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the

Amid the late 17th century, Jonathan Swift’s pamphlet, A Modest Proposal, exploits the negligence of British government towards the Irish people. To illustrate the disregard of the government, he uses logical fallacies, metaphors, repetition and parallelism as well as humor, sarcasm and a satiric tone to highlight these negative attitudes. Not only does he applies these literary devices, he adopts Francis Bacon’s, The Four Idols, to exemplify the intention of the pamphlet. Adopting Bacon’s ideas of the corruption, illusions, and errors of people in society, Swift had the ability to demonstrate the government's disregard towards the people of Ireland. Bacon’s his ideas regarding society are proposed through four idols: “Idols of the Cave”,

When writing, authors need to think of their audience and involve an element of surprise. Authors use plot twists in their writing to help them accomplish surprising the audience, allowing them to keep their audience’s interest. Not only do plot twists help keep the audience’s attention, they also make the audience question their beliefs about what they think of the story. Authors can use this tool to advance their themes. Yann Martel uses a crazy plot twist in his book, the Life of Pi, to suggest to readers that truth is relative.

There were many proposals written throughout history, but no two are the same. Political proposals come often, their viewpoints are usually very strong; however, tend to have their ups and downs. A Modest Proposal is a proposal written in terms of satire and irony in order to cover up the true meaning. While, The Declaration of Independence arguments are direct and clear, Swift places his arguments in chunks at a time. In Modest, Swift talks about how women are becoming beggars with their children: however, this is not all of Ireland. Others could afford things that they need and maybe even more. Others could afford to have children, food, medicine and a place to rest their heads. Someone reading this would agree that something should be done about the poor conditions that have fallen upon the Irish. While the reader continues, he or she would make a shocking discovery, he want to sell babies to be eaten. But is

A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift was obviously meant to be taken ironically but at the same time get a valuable point across. As a passionate supporter of Irish human rights Swift was looking for change and felt the best way to achieve it was through this proposal. Whether he succeeded in that task or not he left us with a valuable piece of literature that will be studied for centuries to come.