Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal certainly carries a very strong impact and is a powerful piece of writing that can leave an audience stunned. It is a satirical narrative, about overpopulation and famines in Ireland, and Swift’s opinion on what can be done to solve it. The “proposal” he had in mind was that people simply fatten up and eat the children, because he believes that they serve no purpose and in actuality are merely contributing to the complication at hand. Swift also uses statistical data that helps advance the idea that his proposal would actually work, making propositions such as “I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the 120,000 already computed, 20,000 may be reserved for breed, whereof only one-fourth
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The irony behind it is that his proposal is anything but modest, and perhaps by referring to his plan as being modest, it only helps intensify his true message. That the impoverished sections of Ireland are desperate for help and a solution. The brutality of Swift’s work undoubtedly caught people’s attention, which was certainly his goal, seeing as how not much at all was being done to help. Or perhaps he was using the intensity of his work to create a dramatization of how the individuals who remained unaffected by poverty and famine viewed the lower class. He wanted to show how they see the issues at hand, and how nothing on their part is being done about it. He wanted to create a representation of how they think the issues of the lower class are very easily fixed, and how they simply brought these issues onto themselves, when in actuality the extent of their issues measure far beyond any simple remedy that someone of the upper class might deem “simple”. Of how any solution proposed to them is so outrageous and unacheivable in their current state, yet others would perceive it as being modest. What Swift effectively did was create an incredibly powerful piece of satirical writing, and at the same time, allowed it to be interpreted as a cry for help by the starving and impoverished. Swift’s ironic use of the title “A Modest Proposal” helps reflect his intentions and
The irony behind it is that his proposal is anything but modest, and perhaps by referring to his plan as being modest, it only helps intensify his true message. That the impoverished sections of Ireland are desperate for help and a solution. The brutality of Swift’s work undoubtedly caught people’s attention, which was certainly his goal, seeing as how not much at all was being done to help. Or perhaps he was using the intensity of his work to create a dramatization of how the individuals who remained unaffected by poverty and famine viewed the lower class. He wanted to show how they see the issues at hand, and how nothing on their part is being done about it. He wanted to create a representation of how they think the issues of the lower class are very easily fixed, and how they simply brought these issues onto themselves, when in actuality the extent of their issues measure far beyond any simple remedy that someone of the upper class might deem “simple”. Of how any solution proposed to them is so outrageous and unacheivable in their current state, yet others would perceive it as being modest. What Swift effectively did was create an incredibly powerful piece of satirical writing, and at the same time, allowed it to be interpreted as a cry for help by the starving and impoverished. Swift’s ironic use of the title “A Modest Proposal” helps reflect his intentions and