A Modest Attemposal And Lawrence Buell's The Environmental O

Joseph Kalema laid down alone for many nights on the streets of Uganda, hungry, alone, unloved, but with a dream for a better life. He was one of the lucky few who were picked up off the side of the street by a pastor and taken to an orphanage. Far too many children face even worse fates than Joseph. Many children live their entire childhood wondering if they will ever have a place to sleep or someone who will love them. Unfortunately, many will not get even the most basic of their desires. Child homelessness in Uganda has become so prominent that living in an orphanage is considered lucky. Many street children in Uganda are treated as outcasts of society and face physical, sexual, and psychological violence. As one male street child recollects, “We are called… useless, thugs, and outcasts in society. No one treats us like human beings and where ever we go people are always pointing fingers at us, beating us without cause, and chasing us around even when we are not in the wrong” (Walakira, 337). The children on …show more content…
Looking at this situation through Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” and Lawrence Buell’s The Environmental Imagination can help us understand the ramifications of Kony’s exploitation and destruction of innocent families. “A Modest Proposal” is an outrageous satire of severe economic disparity in Ireland and the rampant poverty sweeping the nation. To deal with this problem, Swift provides advice for mothers on how to exploit the most money from their children, by killing them, skinning them alive, and selling everything else from the children that are not used. Swift utilizes an obvious satire as an attempt to encourage conversation in parliament about the poverty in Ireland. However, the satire Swift proposes describes the struggle Ugandans faced under Kony. Swift’s proposal can help us understand Kony’s impact on Ugandan children in his quest for