In this essay Jonathan swift brings up a lot of issues. At the theme early 1700s one of the biggest things he talks about is a class warfare, the haves vs the haves not, those in society who don’t have a voice but should have a voice, - gives the sense that JS challenges everybody-all parties involved. This whole story starts by really engaging us, shocking us by talking about this whole cannibalism eating children, which is really strange, disturbing, odd, but it serves its purpose in engaging the reader and it also helps to really rally around something that should tug on all of our heartstrings – children. He proposes this lengthy idea of eating kids as the solution to society’s problems. Although it’s odd, it arises the questioning of whether
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But readers are not that, they are human beings, with soul spirit, heart, brain and it gives the sense that his proposal is not right. All in all, JS is trying to address a lot of society’s problem by shocking us, by really engaging us and proposing some very radical ideas while at the same time trying to get us to look at things that are really going on, to get us to wake up. So obviously he is not serious but this is an approach to get people engaged.
Swift’s A Modest Proposal has a disturbing tendency to work for several reasons. For starters, England and Ireland have never gotten along- historically speaking, there has never been the best of relationship between the two nations, lots and lots of tension. England dominated Ireland for a series of years through a series of battles and the like, and at a key pivotal moment in Irish history, England began to exert its forces’ influence. England decides to do the unthinkable- they raise taxes on a group of people in Ireland that are already extremely poor then the terrible “Irish potato famine” happens. With potato crops diminishing, you have quite literally thousands of people who have nothing to eat and …show more content…
He will take then this voice throughout the entire essay. The essay is of three part. Part one: he sets up his readers by saying it gets dark at night, the obvious. That he just returned from Ireland and everything is really bad. He even goes so far as to say- if somebody could figure out a solution to all the homeless kids in Ireland that person would deserve a huge monument in London. Part two: he provides his proposal to the problem. Notice how he sets up this piece of satire- first he says there’s a problem, second he says I have a solution, and he proposes/ presents his solution. His solution is radical. The title of the essay is a modest proposal or a very humble or a very under said or under spoken proposal. But of course it’s the most radical-imagined proposal in the history of the English language. Part three: at the end of the essay, he says well there it is. If somebody has a better proposal than mine, I’d be more than happy to hear it. And he finishes. At no point in the essay does he ever say just kidding this is satire. That’s crucial to understanding satire. Satire- that is to say, say one thing, men something else. It’s one thing to say it’s a terrible thing to starve the
But readers are not that, they are human beings, with soul spirit, heart, brain and it gives the sense that his proposal is not right. All in all, JS is trying to address a lot of society’s problem by shocking us, by really engaging us and proposing some very radical ideas while at the same time trying to get us to look at things that are really going on, to get us to wake up. So obviously he is not serious but this is an approach to get people engaged.
Swift’s A Modest Proposal has a disturbing tendency to work for several reasons. For starters, England and Ireland have never gotten along- historically speaking, there has never been the best of relationship between the two nations, lots and lots of tension. England dominated Ireland for a series of years through a series of battles and the like, and at a key pivotal moment in Irish history, England began to exert its forces’ influence. England decides to do the unthinkable- they raise taxes on a group of people in Ireland that are already extremely poor then the terrible “Irish potato famine” happens. With potato crops diminishing, you have quite literally thousands of people who have nothing to eat and …show more content…
He will take then this voice throughout the entire essay. The essay is of three part. Part one: he sets up his readers by saying it gets dark at night, the obvious. That he just returned from Ireland and everything is really bad. He even goes so far as to say- if somebody could figure out a solution to all the homeless kids in Ireland that person would deserve a huge monument in London. Part two: he provides his proposal to the problem. Notice how he sets up this piece of satire- first he says there’s a problem, second he says I have a solution, and he proposes/ presents his solution. His solution is radical. The title of the essay is a modest proposal or a very humble or a very under said or under spoken proposal. But of course it’s the most radical-imagined proposal in the history of the English language. Part three: at the end of the essay, he says well there it is. If somebody has a better proposal than mine, I’d be more than happy to hear it. And he finishes. At no point in the essay does he ever say just kidding this is satire. That’s crucial to understanding satire. Satire- that is to say, say one thing, men something else. It’s one thing to say it’s a terrible thing to starve the