The Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift

Improved Essays
Jonathan Swift's anonymously wrote the modest proposal was to end the food shortage in Ireland and feel the hunger crisis within stimulating the exchange and regulating the overpopulation of the poor. Swift proposes the idea by telling them that his friend in America said how tasty infant’s meat was delicious and tender meat that the chef basted, stewed, baked, boiled and roasted. Therefore, the baby skin turned into beautiful fine leather gloves for women and shoes for men. Swift proposes that the sale of infants would improve the economy by giving an income to the lower class that could not afford their children.

Nevertheless, the author was an Irishman preserving the welfare of his homeland as an Irishman. Swift puts a spin at the ending that reading would be outraged that Swift was the just concern for his country and not for the children living in the streets with no more than rags to cover themselves. Therefore, Swift proposed to sacrifice Irish babies as a delicacy for the wealthy. However, Swift remained driven by the desperate dilemma of his country, as well as the significant advantages rich and the author as confidence that the proposal would benefit the country. However, he tells the reader that he would not include for his children would not bring one shilling since they already past the age and his wife no longer have children.
…show more content…
The modest proposal by Jonathan Swift that the motive was to the public's right of the country and submitted his proposal. Jonathan Swift purpose as to gather people's reaction as they are shocked and outrage the reader of extreme poverty and unfair trade with Great Britain. Swift effectively uses irony to get his point across to make people stand up and take notice of the problem of poverty in their

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    A Modest Proposal is a satirical piece written by Jonathan Swift which uses the idea of satire to convey a message. His use of this literary device exaggerates the main message to comment on both the social and political hardships of overpopulation and poverty with Irish immigrants. There are multiple examples of irony that Swift uses, but these are about four of these pieces of evidence within the text that effective show his mastery of this literary device. The first example of Irony is within the title itself.…

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” offers a very interesting proposal to the problems that Ireland was having with poverty and overpopulation. He offers several unrealistic and crazy solution that basically puts poor children into harsh treatment, child labor and offering them as a form of meat for the wealthy people to eat. Swift effectively uses insincerity, sarcasm, and rhetorical exaggeration to reveal his annoyance on how nobody is doing nothing about poverty and overpopulation in Ireland. Swifts main purpose of “A Modest Proposal” was to get the attention of everybody in Ireland that they have a big issue about poverty and over population.…

    • 135 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After reading the work of Jonathan Swift "A Modest Proposal" I could not help feeling sorry for the people who live in these conditions. The farmers who have to meditate for food and children who cannot defend themselves and only suffer from hunger and poverty. It is inevitable to think of solutions that help to hunger, anguish, and poverty. Therefore, Swift poses a solution full of satire, black humor and a bit of mockery about the depressing situation of these families and the society in general.…

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Swift distract his audience with the idea of consuming babies but also includes the true plans that he wishes to achieve as well. Towards the end of his writing he establishes the things not to speak of; for instance, "Let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, 'till hath at least some glimpse of hope, that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into practice". This is intentionally and specifically included at the end of the italic paragraphs to stress the fact that those plans are what the nation should follow, especially not to ignore it because it needs to be accomplished with "sincere hope and attempt to put in practice". One of the things beginning with, "Of taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound; of using neither clothes, nor household furniture..." and so forth, is presented in his piece for those who are willing to accomplish those plans. To be more elaborative, he is extremely attempting to grab the audiences attention, like saying "Since people are not realizing the major agony that our nation experiences, I am going to write an essay that no one will be able to resist to listen or read that includes a ridiculous proposal; however, a way to affix solutions of relieving poverty, even though it is going to be presented as sarcasm; in reality, it is…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Modest Proposal was written by Jonathan Swift and published as a pamphlet in 1729. The proposal was submitted anonymously by Jonathan in an attempt to find a quick and simple solution to the poverty in Ireland. The author uses a number of rhetorical devise to appeal a rational and or emotional response of the audience. Right from the start of the proposal looking at the title, the author is using irony to introduce his proposal being hardly a “Modest Proposal”.…

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In his satirical piece, A Modest Proposal, Dr. Jonathon Swift’s use of pathos demonstrates that civil neglect has debilitating effects on the poor in Ireland. Swift uses reduction to convey the degraded value of human life. Swift proposes that “the skin [of a child...] will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen” (I. 94-96). Since poor children are an eyesore to the upper class in the streets begging for food and money, Swift proposes that these children should be ridden of and killed. A poor child’s life, that would have been wasted away struggling to survive, takes on meaning by making use of its body parts to serve the upper class.…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Swift begins his “Modest Proposal” by talking about beggars and the children thereof. He expresses in a multitude of ways that selling off the children will bring in money for the mother. He believes that his solution would “provide for them in such a manner… contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing of many thousands.” Bringing this up he is able to bring his point across to show his idea was not rubbish but could help thousands in his country.…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jonathan Swift, author of “A Modest Proposal,” tries to present different ideas in order to change the situation of Ireland. Through his proposal, he is able to get his point across. He wrote this essay to show how undeveloped and bad the state of Ireland is and the social classes. Throughout the essay he tries to make the readers to accept his idea of selling kids for food, all the while mentions some facts he think it is right. The idea is trying to make children of Ireland into useful members of the community.…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The issue that Swift sees is that the poor people and or beggars, as swift calls them, are not productive people of society and he wants to find a cheap, fast, and easy fix to this problem. The Author argues that the solution for this problem is to fatten up the poor children so that they can be sold to the Rich and eaten. This is supposed to help with overpopulation and unemployment and will spare the family the expenses of the child by being sold to the meat market at the age of 1. The Author gives specific data to uphold his argument and how this would benefit the community as a whole. The author believes that this will solve the complex social, political, and economic problems.…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In his satirical essay “A Modest Proposal” Jonathan Swift uses cannibalism as a means to mock the English government. As a whole, his essay is shocking and grotesque at first, but it is also important to the direct critique of those who are in power. When Swift wrote this essay, the population of Ireland was suffering from the effects of British Colonization. Those who were in power neglected to help the disempowered, which included the vast majority of Ireland population (Professor Makdisi). Throughout his essay, Swift represents the negativity that is associated with the imposition of England men in power.…

    • 1650 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Ireland, there is nothing to do for the poor women to survive except begging for their helpless infant. The author tries to depict the pitiful life for the poor people through the essay. However, he portrays them in a completely different way. The author Swift uses ironic literary technique to expose a wretched life of poor Irish people. Even though the actual life of Irish poor people was painful, he describes the poor people as a great grievance for the country.…

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Also, he states that he is not bent on his real ideas alone to fix the problem. Therefore, he says if there are any better ideas, that others should do it. He did not refute the opposing claims to leave room for those who may have better ideas than Swift and therefore, he is not so bent on his ideas. The weakness in Swift’s argument is that it does not account for how the people would feel about helping the poor. They may not feel the need to do anything for the poor; such as feeding them or giving them food.…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout the passage, Swift uses calculations he made to not only prove his credibility as a narrator but the credibility of the proposal. In one particular section, Swift lists the six advantages to his proposal. In this list, Swift is able to continue his appeal to every citizen of Ireland. He criticizes the papists, offers money to the poor, shows the economic gain, the relief of burdens on poor families, the refinement of the meat in recipes for the wealthy, and a social improvement for the commoners and poor. The proposal of eating infants seems less absurd, and in fact, it would greatly help improve Ireland.…

    • 1113 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    A Modest Proposal, written by Jonathan Swift, is a satirical essay from 1729. In the essay, Swift describes the circumstances and the amount of Irish people throughout Great Britain living in poverty, along with the lack of assistance from the English. He writes about how the Irish’s situation could have improved if they were willing to sell their children (especially babies) as food for the people of wealth in Great Britain. Unlike in the Wizard of Oz, the Irish females in A Modest Proposal don’t experience self-realization. They have no confidence in themselves or want to improve their lifestyles whatsoever.…

    • 1440 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He also demonstrates logic and thought by showcasing the statistics of how his system would work. He shows that “20,000 (poor children) may be reserved for breed” and that “the remaining 100,000” could be offered for sale to the kingdom. This shows that Swift put time and effort into thinking of these numbers and also shows that Swift thought more about how the system would work. These pieces of the text also go back to support Swift’s message of how absurd the Irish poverty level is. With talk of flaying, selling, and breeding children, Swift again shows how low the Irish must go to support themselves.…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays