The word modest means moderate or reasonable, the avoidance of excess or extremes, especially in behavior or opinions. Swift introduces his proposal with the following statement: "I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection." (Swift 418) He makes the readers believe in his humble and selfless intentions of the proposal. The proposal that follows though is horrific and appalling! The idea of eating children at a year old is an extreme, which is the exact opposite modest. In using the word “modest” to describe his proposal, Swift introduces irony, which is a figure of speech in which there is a contradiction of expectation between what is said and what is really meant. He does
