A Modest Theoretical Analysis

The idea of a present day government is one that provides services to its citizens in order to provide a better life. However, this idea is conflicted by the behavior of the British Crown that Jonathan Swift criticizes in “A Modest Proposal,” due to fact that the government has objectified its citizens by leaving them helpless. The same circumstance governmental efforts in “Beautiful Monsters,” to refine humanity, only resulted in in hindering humans since they forgot the complexity behind humanity. Moreover, the inhumane strategies both governments utilized to maintain power proved to worsen their respective settlements. The acts by these respective governments additionally thwarted and distorted the traditional behavior of humans by shattering …show more content…
Effectively, the government in “Beautiful Monsters,” operates through their advocation of obedience, but this type of obedience is through an untraditional method: the programming of humans. By programming humans, the government deviates from human birth to artificial creation (Puchner 187), which distinguishes the Perennials from the outsiders of their society. The girl’s observation of her brother’s “string of a penis, vestigial as an appendix,” ( Puchner 187.) demonstrates the engineering behind the new modern human. The modification of the penis into a useless organ proves the genetic alteration of these humans fulfills the government’s plan to work the new machines without any consequences. The lack of genitals adds to the dehumanization of the Perennials because it takes away their ability to create a family. The absence of family effectively leads perennials to look towards the government for guidance instead of a father or mother figure. Additionally, Puchner shows the indecisiveness from the boy as “… he touches the trigger, dampening it with sweat…he cannot kill this doomed and sickly creature,” (Puchner 197), to prove the processing error caused when the boy had to make the decision between killing the man or letting the Perennials apprehend him. Ironically, the inferior Senescents’s demonstration of life’s …show more content…
The exclusion of Senescents in the “ Beautiful Monsters,” was the key ingredient in for making a society that worked as the government desired. The additional Senescent in the society broke the balance, which caused a malfunction in the circuit inside perennials. Puchner emphasizes on the outsiders’ smell “the smell of him every morning, a sour blend of sweat and old person breath,” (187) to show how the girl’s mind is enraged by a different smell. The girl’s dislike towards the Senescent is the result of perennial engineering that occurred “in a lab where frozen embryos are kept,” (Puchner 187). The government manipulates their citizens into rejecting the outsiders in order for them not to question their utopic civilization. Additionally, the town’s refusal toward the Senescent results in a bounty for the outsiders, the writer states: “the town is offering an official reward for any Senescent captured. Five thousand dollars, dead or alive,” (Puchner 194). Evidently, the government rejects humanity by having their citizens live in a society where they work only to benefit the government. Their rejection of humanity comes through the violent and oppressive exclusion of undesirables, hence the hefty fee to capture one. Swift supports Puchner’s argument by agreeing that the broken societal balance causes chaos in Ireland. Because of this,