Thi Nguyen
Kelli Davis
English 102
April 13, 2015
The Taste of Children
During the late 1720s, Ireland was a country struggling with poverty; beggars and starving children appeared everywhere. It was a period of economic despair as trade deteriorated and poor harvests brought starvation (“Hang up Half a Dozen Bankers ': attitudes to Bankers in Mid-eighteenth-century Ireland”). The English were also tyrannizing the Irish very strongly. All Ireland’s money was shipped off to England and the English policies kept the Irish poor. During this time, political pamphlets were distributed throughout Ireland to promote the ideas of various intellectuals but many discarded them (Cody). Jonathan Swift took advantage of the overlooked pamphlets and constructed an outrageous proposal in 1729. “A Modest Proposal” offered an unimaginable but surprisingly logical solution to these problems of food shortage and human misery.
Jonathan Swift originated from a poor background. He was an Anglo-Irishman; this term applied to people who lived in Ireland but considered themselves as more English. However, he became an Irish patriot in his pamphlets, defending the Irish against the cruel policies of their English rulers. Swift did not write for fame or money; his aim in writing was to improve human conduct. He is England’s greatest satirist but most of his books and pamphlets were published anonymously (Swift 579). If Swift had not published “A Modest Proposal” anonymously, the people may have not taken it seriously. If the people knew it was written by an accomplished satirist, they would be looking for the joke from the beginning. His intended audience was not Ireland, although the Irish people were the subject of this piece. It was aimed at England, specifically the English parliament, in order to present them the moral injustice which they were responsible for creating. When most people have a problem with the way something is being done they say it in a straightforward way. Jonathan Swift used a different approach to express his anger with the system on how Ireland was being run and the country’s lack of ideas on how to solve its social issues. His purpose was to write a satiric piece that would expose the horrible treatment of the Irish people by England and the terrible conditions in which the Irish people had to live in. …show more content…
The solution he suggested was to "fatten up" the undernourished children and sell them into a meat market where they will be sold for food; therefore solving the economic and population problems in Ireland. His motto was, “For preventing the children of poor people from being a burden to their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the public.” One must think that this is an absurd proposal but Swift was able to provide rational reasoning to support his plan (Swift 582). Swift 's solution to the problem was not cannibalism. This was only used as satire to capture the attention of the people. England was figuratively "eating away" at the social structure and economy of Ireland. Therefore, he used the metaphor of cannibalism in order to open the eyes of the English people to the unjust treatment of Ireland. The piece started by including statistics: the number of people in the country, the number of couples, the number of women who suffered miscarriages, the number of children born into poor families, and many more. To be exact, 120,000 infants were computed to be born every year in Ireland, where 100,000 would be sold to the wealthy to be eaten and 20,000 children would be reserved for breeding. Swift calculated that a plump infant of thirty pounds would provide food for many dinners. Also, the meat could be preserved with pepper or salt and it will last well into winter. The price of each child is estimated to be about ten shillings providing about eight shillings of profit to the parents. In addition, the skin of the child would make fine gloves for wealthy ladies and summer boots for wealthy gentlemen (Swift 585). Swift chose to use solid facts and numbers to support his reason because people would tend to believe it more if it was logically accurate. He also implied the idea that society’s evils can be cured by
Kelli Davis
English 102
April 13, 2015
The Taste of Children
During the late 1720s, Ireland was a country struggling with poverty; beggars and starving children appeared everywhere. It was a period of economic despair as trade deteriorated and poor harvests brought starvation (“Hang up Half a Dozen Bankers ': attitudes to Bankers in Mid-eighteenth-century Ireland”). The English were also tyrannizing the Irish very strongly. All Ireland’s money was shipped off to England and the English policies kept the Irish poor. During this time, political pamphlets were distributed throughout Ireland to promote the ideas of various intellectuals but many discarded them (Cody). Jonathan Swift took advantage of the overlooked pamphlets and constructed an outrageous proposal in 1729. “A Modest Proposal” offered an unimaginable but surprisingly logical solution to these problems of food shortage and human misery.
Jonathan Swift originated from a poor background. He was an Anglo-Irishman; this term applied to people who lived in Ireland but considered themselves as more English. However, he became an Irish patriot in his pamphlets, defending the Irish against the cruel policies of their English rulers. Swift did not write for fame or money; his aim in writing was to improve human conduct. He is England’s greatest satirist but most of his books and pamphlets were published anonymously (Swift 579). If Swift had not published “A Modest Proposal” anonymously, the people may have not taken it seriously. If the people knew it was written by an accomplished satirist, they would be looking for the joke from the beginning. His intended audience was not Ireland, although the Irish people were the subject of this piece. It was aimed at England, specifically the English parliament, in order to present them the moral injustice which they were responsible for creating. When most people have a problem with the way something is being done they say it in a straightforward way. Jonathan Swift used a different approach to express his anger with the system on how Ireland was being run and the country’s lack of ideas on how to solve its social issues. His purpose was to write a satiric piece that would expose the horrible treatment of the Irish people by England and the terrible conditions in which the Irish people had to live in. …show more content…
The solution he suggested was to "fatten up" the undernourished children and sell them into a meat market where they will be sold for food; therefore solving the economic and population problems in Ireland. His motto was, “For preventing the children of poor people from being a burden to their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the public.” One must think that this is an absurd proposal but Swift was able to provide rational reasoning to support his plan (Swift 582). Swift 's solution to the problem was not cannibalism. This was only used as satire to capture the attention of the people. England was figuratively "eating away" at the social structure and economy of Ireland. Therefore, he used the metaphor of cannibalism in order to open the eyes of the English people to the unjust treatment of Ireland. The piece started by including statistics: the number of people in the country, the number of couples, the number of women who suffered miscarriages, the number of children born into poor families, and many more. To be exact, 120,000 infants were computed to be born every year in Ireland, where 100,000 would be sold to the wealthy to be eaten and 20,000 children would be reserved for breeding. Swift calculated that a plump infant of thirty pounds would provide food for many dinners. Also, the meat could be preserved with pepper or salt and it will last well into winter. The price of each child is estimated to be about ten shillings providing about eight shillings of profit to the parents. In addition, the skin of the child would make fine gloves for wealthy ladies and summer boots for wealthy gentlemen (Swift 585). Swift chose to use solid facts and numbers to support his reason because people would tend to believe it more if it was logically accurate. He also implied the idea that society’s evils can be cured by