Swift's A Modest Proposal, By Jonathan Swift

Dr. Jonathan Swift’s purpose while writing “A Modest Proposal,” was to shock and to inform the public about his idea to sell children of poor families to be eaten. In the book, Satire: A Critical Reintroduction, Dustin Griffin

Think of a summer afternoon, you are having a barbeque, your family is preparing for a feast, your father is taking good care of the baby, then he slowly places it on the grill, the sizzling sound makes everyone’s mouth water. Well, that is a very immoral example, but in that era, it was all Johnathan Swift could suggest. To clarify, this idea of eating babies is what Jonathan Swift proposed in his satirical pamphlet “A Modest Proposal.” The pamphlet was written centuries ago after the events of the potato famine in Ireland. Lower Class citizens became poor quickly and were dying of starvation. Ireland’s closest neighbor, England, did not help Ireland with this problem, so in need of a solution Jonathan Swift wrote “A Modest Proposal.” In Swift’s pamphlet, the author addresses the major concern of poverty with satire using pathos, logos, and ethos to motivate his country to resolves the issue.

In the "The Modest Proposal," by Jonathan Swift he discusses a solution to poverty in Ireland during the 18th century. Swift’s bizarre, yet well thought out plan for helping families of Ireland, who were in poverty and desperately in the need of money, was fattening children and selling them to the wealthy landowners. He thought that this would be an excellent way for children not to be a burden on their parents but be beneficial. Swift even went on to write a pamphlet telling the parents just how they could fatten their babies and the perfect age and weight for the kids to be before selling them. One of Swift’s friends goes on to give some helpful/ tasty ways that the kids can be cooked before eaten. This does not only financially support Ireland, but it also improves the social, political, and economic problems. Swift didn’t see why anyone in Ireland would disagree with such a brilliant plan that could benefit them in so many ways, except the being eaten of course. Swift even goes on to say that by shrinking the population of kids it would just be less subjects to worry about ruling over and less chaos. Swift’s idea of fattening kids to sell as food to the wealthier landowners of Ireland was one of the most brilliant solutions to solve all of the problems being brought about in Ireland.

In his modest proposal, Jonathan Swift uses logical fallacies, repetition, metaphors, humor, parallelism, sarcasm and satire. The devices are effectively used to examine the attitude of the rich people towards the poor in the society. Jonathan starts by mocking the mothers for strolling in the streets begging for alms instead of looking for jobs and putting something on the tables for children to eat. Jonathan predicts that when the kids grow, they might turn out to be thieves as nobody taught these kids to earn an honest living. He uses logical fallacies to try and make the proposal modest though his line of thinking is not correct. He points out that a year-old child is nourishing and wholesome food. That a healthy child is delicious food to be prepared using any method of food preparation is outrageous. He proposes that 20,000 children preserved for bleeding purposes. This is dehumanizing children and comparing them to animals. He outlines how slaughterhouses should be build and butchers be employed to do the slaughtering of children. In his exaggeration, he goes to the point of saying that the kids will be roasted like pigs. ( ) Swift also uses irony when he says that there are about 200,000 couples whose wives are just breeders. ( ) He proposes that an arrangement is made to the rear and provide for these children. Here he compares women to animals because human beings are not bred for commercial purposes. Here he dehumanizes human beings by use of satire. He gives reasons as to why this is a good idea. First, he says that the method will decrease the number of useless Catholics in Ireland. Secondly, he claims that the government will earn from exports of the meat from Ireland. The mothers will also earn something from this breeding and a burden will be lifted off their shoulders. He also foresees that the new delicacy will be welcomed in the taverns. The marriage institution will also be enhanced because mothers will put in more effort in raising the best kids because they would fetch good prices in the markets. To support his argument, Swift is sarcastic that some parts of children's body are good for eating. He further notes that these

Jonathan Swift was a very crafty writer for his time. Living in 16th and 17th century Ireland must not have been easy considering the history. During this time there was a famine and England was watching and waiting for the downfall of this country. Swift was a satirical writer who was very good at his craft. In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift introduces a lunatic idea that his country should “eat the children.” He is, of course, joking, but he makes a huge statement in saying this. It shows that the government would rather ignore or blame the problem on someone else rather than fixing the problem itself. This reading relates to an audience in that Swift is trying to let the people of his time see what a horrible government the people of Ireland live in. This argument mattered to the people of Ireland and it should matter today because it shows how a government can say it takes care of its people when it truly does not. “A Modest Proposal,” is a very valuable piece because it proves that it just takes one voice to open the eyes of others, and I believe that Swift did an excellent job using the rhetorical triangle because his satirical masterpiece made people think about how they were being treated by the government.

In Jonathan Swift’s satirical work, A Modest Proposal, the reader is presented with a horrible concept using extremely effective language and logos; Swift uses strong speech, rational tone, and complex grammar to convince readers that eating children will solve all the problems in 19th century Ireland. Swift’s overall goals in his pamphlet, however, is not to actually encourage eating babies, which is why it is of satire, but is instead to raise awareness of Ireland’s conditions for living, failing political figures, and the tyranny brought by England.

Although I realize your concern, you have missed the point of this well thought out essay completely. Despite what you may think about A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, this essay is a satire master piece filled with irony. Swift’s essay was not intended to convince people to eat babies, but to call attention to the abuses Catholic’s face from their well-to-do Protestants. He only uses eating babies in his essay to explain to the reader the impossible burdens the Protestants are imposing on the Irish Catholics and by making their life hard, they are making a life of a new born impossible.

Ireland, Swift's home country, was under deep poverty and famine in the time period of this writing. Many citizens were stuck in a financial hole with no escape from the latches of poverty. In addition, many of the impoverished class consisted of mothers with multiple children. As a result, many

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

In A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift challenges the Neo-classical period by creating a sense of instability in their way of thinking. He attacks the society by carelessly endorsing cannibalism in hopes to help Ireland through their economic crisis. He demonstrates this by humbly proposing and assuring "that a young healthy child, well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food."

A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, is a piece of work that is just horrifying to read. “... a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or broiled….” ( Swift 406). This is so revolting, but keeping in mind that this was written in the seventeen hundreds i had to look at this from the lense of those in such times. An American man suggested this “food source” to Swift seeing it as a fix for the overpopulated poor society and scarce food rations. Even so it is unthinkable to eat children, that is cannibalism and that is just nasty. Reading this piece i had to cover my mouth in such disgust, honestly i couldn't think about the harsh reality of this world

This piece written by Swift may be satirical and a horrendous idea to the common people, it would fix the problems that Dublin is having. By selling off their newborns, which they can’t afford anyway, they can make quite a bit of profit, helping with the poverty problem. Soon, they won’t have to worry about the little thieves running around because all of the children that have been stealing will have grown up and there won’t be any new children coming into the business. Lastly, with the new generation being butchered and devoured, there would be a rapid decrease in the

A Modest Proposal was written in the year 1729 by the famous satirist Jonathan Swift. In his work he outlines the pros of eating unwanted children of Ireland for economical benefits in a time of great poverty. While the reader can obviously discard the idea of eating children, in his proposal, in a roundabout way, Swift speaks to hard pressing issues of the time.

“Infants flesh will be in season throughout the year but plentiful in March, and a little before and after.”(689) Jonathan Swift is proposing that the English grant permission for small children, and infants to be sold and eaten for food. “A Modest Proposal”, is a satirical way to show the people that they have not come up with any promising solutions to solve the issues such as overpopulation, poverty, hunger and abortion. In his proposal, he argues in order to persuade the people that this is the answer in relieving the Irish from poverty, and will satisfy England’s greed for money. Suggesting that small innocent children be taken from their families and be sold as food or trade for the sake of money and poverty is ludicrous.

There only remain a hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents who are annually born”(5). By Swift including these statistics shows that he has well thought out this plan, and Swift has done plenty of research before coming to his conclusion. Swift later gives credibility to his friend from London by saying, “a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food”(9). All three rhetorical devices that he used were great ways to persuade the people of Ireland ,that were in poverty, that this was the best option to help them prosper.