A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift

A Modest Proposal was a satirical essay written by Jonathan Swift depicting the horrific conditions of Ireland and the lives of the Irish people in 1729. Swift writes the satire disguised as a social planner of the time who as Swift satirizes were known to be overly rational rather than compassionate. The author portrays and attacks the cruel and unjust oppression of Ireland by its oppressor, the mighty English and ridicules the Irish people at the same time. However, Swift's opposition is indirectly presented. Jonathan Swift is able to do so by using the persona, irony, and wit in order to expose the remarkable corruption and degradation of the Irish people, and at the same time present them with practicable solutions to their economic

The satirical essay “A Modest Proposal” written and published in in 1729 by an Anglo- Irish man named Jonathan Swift, in response to the worsening conditions of Ireland, was one of his most controversial and severe writings of his time. The narrator in Swift’s essay “A Modest Proposal” argues for a drastic and radical end to poverty in Ireland. Swift’s proposal suggests that the needy, poor people of Ireland can ease their troubles simply by selling their children as food to the rich and make them useful, benefitting the public. With the use of irony, exaggeration and ridicule Swift mocks feelings and attitudes towards the poor people of Ireland and the politicians. However, with the use of satire Swift creates a

At the time A Modest Proposal was written, Ireland was in a state of extreme poverty. The country was significantly overpopulated: people were struggling to make ends meet and provide for the growing population. The author of the text, Dr. Jonathan Swift, was repulsed by the Irish government’s reluctance to institute any major changes to help resolve the levels of poverty and overpopulation present at the time. In response, he wrote this text to criticize the upper class for this level of inaction, as well as their failed attempts at resolving the issue. Through Swift’s use of satirical devices -- such as irony, hyperbole, and understatement -- he was able to convey his message to the public which was criticism about the inadequate actions being taken by the government to solve Ireland’s troubles. He believed they weren’t doing enough to help the situation at the time and wanted them to see their defeat in hopes that they would decide to finally act.

The implied thesis of Swift’s “A Modest Proposal" is that 18th century Ireland would be in a better situation if the Irish society and monarchy actually treated problems such as overpopulation and poverty, While the overt thesis is that Irish people should consider eating their children and selling them to rich Englishmen to solve the issue of poverty and overpopulation in the country. They differ form one another as one focuses on eating children, while the other focuses on giving commentary through the essay itself.

"A Modest Proposal" is a social commentary written by Jonathan Swift, he uses techniques such as irony, satire, and sarcasm to mock the Irish government of his time. After reading Swift's essay half way through, one might not believe how graphic and shocking it's been written. He wrote a letter suggesting they sell the children of the poor to the wealthy families, as this will provide food, clothing, and will decrease the population. Throughout the letter he uses remarkable details as to how they should go about eating the children, treating them as livestock. The letter ends with a completely different tone when the author explains the absurdity of his proposal and instead suggests something a bit more realistic and humane like the wealthy should give up some of their luxuries. He uses a lot of thorough, literalized metaphors, and ironic and sarcasm techniques to a devastating effect. A Modest Proposal has been judged as an excellent work of rhetorical brilliancy, and it acquires readers critical attention up until now Swift exposes all the bizarre remarks and ideas he has been discussing about are all a humorous way to make fun of the way the government is run and how they are not serving their country. Afterwards he expresses a proper proposal of taking away some of the wealthier people's luxuries in order to help their economy. this essay explains the three techniques used in Swift's proposal, such as; Irony, Satire and Sarcasm.

A Modest Proposal is a satirical pamphlet that examines the attitude of the rich towards the poor starving children in their society. Jonathan Swift uses a number of rhetorical devices effectively as he highlights his proposal. He uses logical fallacies, metaphors, repetition and parallelism as well as humor, sarcasm and satire tone to highlight these negative attitudes.

In “A Modest Proposal” Jonathan swift’s choice of ridicule is the ignorance of the wealthy and of the politicians. The satirical technique used to establish this is socratic irony. This is presented when Swift proposes that children of poor Irish families should “contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing of thousands” to revamp Ireland (Swift, paragraph 4) . In all Swift forces the people of ireland to take a good look at the reality of what their society's economic conditions. The idea stated that for the socially rich part of ireland to thrive they have to feed on the starving population in order for their own survival is absurd. Plus the fact that they only eat the children of the poor goes with the social standard of the lower class doing all the work while the upper class abuses their money and power.

In the 1700s, Ireland was under the control of the British. They also owned Northern Ireland. The British were causing immense numbers of problems for the Irish people because their policies were leaving people homeless and starving. Jonathan Swift was a man who was born and raised in Ireland during these times. He engrossed himself in Irish politics especially during this time. Swift saw the struggles of the Irish people and became outraged by their conditions. He decided to fight against the British’s actions in a unique way, hoping that it would end this time of extreme poverty for the Irish. To do so, Swift wrote the satirical essay “A Modest Proposal”, using the voice of an upper class

During the late seventeenth century the English controlled-parliament had legislated several ideas and laws that restricted the rights of the Ireland Catholics. This caused the Ireland economy to slowly fall apart as many people discarded the issues. However, Jonathan Swift took advantage of the overlooked laws and went on to write the essay, A Modest Proposal. In this writing piece Swift lodged a ridiculous proposal. In doing so he manifested a clear cut image of how backwards and corrupted the state of Ireland really was in the hands of the English. Swift’s essay employed his insincerity, sarcasm, verbal irony, and rhetorics that depicted the conditions of Ireland and its people. However his tone of the whole essay along with his insincerity illustrated the comical effect of the proposal to make his argument seem unserious.

Jonathan Swift was a very crafty writer for his time. Living in 16th and 17th century Ireland must not have been easy considering the history. During this time there was a famine and England was watching and waiting for the downfall of this country. Swift was a satirical writer who was very good at his craft. In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift introduces a lunatic idea that his country should “eat the children.” He is, of course, joking, but he makes a huge statement in saying this. It shows that the government would rather ignore or blame the problem on someone else rather than fixing the problem itself. This reading relates to an audience in that Swift is trying to let the people of his time see what a horrible government the people of Ireland live in. This argument mattered to the people of Ireland and it should matter today because it shows how a government can say it takes care of its people when it truly does not. “A Modest Proposal,” is a very valuable piece because it proves that it just takes one voice to open the eyes of others, and I believe that Swift did an excellent job using the rhetorical triangle because his satirical masterpiece made people think about how they were being treated by the government.

"A Modest Proposal" is a good example of Juvenalian Satire, which is a form of satire that get its point across through scorn and contemptuous ridicule. In this work of literature, Swift attacks England, and most of the rich and noble people of Ireland for either being the cause, or standing back and twiddling with their thumbs as the poor people in Ireland continue to suffer. Swift's method of doing this is rather extreme. In A Modest Proposal, he suggests that cannibalism will solve the problems. Yes, he suggests that eating one-year-old children will take care of the economic crisis that is happening in Ireland. His way of delivering this idea is demonstrated without morality. And his criticism of the Irish people and England is very cold. For example, in the text, Swift says, "For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, the flesh of being too tender a consistence to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it." This quote explains how England has no problem eating up the country of Ireland, just like the people who will buy and eat the children. Swift is also very critical of the wealthy landlords that charge their tenants too much money. An

A Modest Proposal examines the attitude of the rich towards the poor children in their society. There are many rhetorical devices effectively affectively used to highlights Jonathan Swift proposal. He uses metaphors, repetition, logical fallacies and humor, parallelism, sarcasm and satire tone to highlight the negative attitudes. He starts his proposal by blaming and mocking the children’s mothers by informing them that instead of begging for alms (aka money) they should just get engaged or find a job to earn a fare rage for a hones living. Jonathan Swift goes on by predicts the future of the children saying that as they grow up they will become thieves. The reason for this is because he says the parents failed to raise their children the modest way.

Jonathan Swift wrote A Modest Proposal in response to the Whigs political party attempting to further devalue the existing third-world economy of Ireland through absentee landlordism. The Whig Party was originally founded in 1678, at the start of Britain’s modern political history. The key principles of the Whigs were to defend the people against tyranny and to advance human progress. Swift sought to expose the English complacency and hypocrisy as well as Irish 's unwillingness to fight back against injustice. The way A Modest Proposal is written, it is obvious it was made of people of higher class. Swift show those who are privileged a glimpse of what life is like for poverty struck Ireland.

In a “Modest Proposal” Swift expresses his grief as well as irritation of Ireland’s politicians, the hypocrisy of the wealthy, the tyranny of the English, and the degradation in which he witnesses the Irish people living. While Swift explains how England continuously exploits Ireland, he also expresses the utter disgust he finds in the inability of the Irish to help themselves. Swift mourns and shows compassion for the Irish people but critiques both for the issue at hand. (Sparknotes). Through this ironic essay of surprises and shocks, swift challenges the reader consider and critically analyze policies, motivation, and moral values. Jonathan Swift states in the essay that

In his biting political satire called ?A Modest Proposal,? Jonathan Swift seeks to create empathy for the poor through his ironic portrayal of the children of Irish beggars as commodities that can be regulated and even eaten. He is able to poke fun at the dehumanization of the multitudes of poor people in Ireland by ironically commenting on what he sees as an extension of the current situation. Swift?s essay seeks to comment on the terrible condition of starvation that a huge portion of Ireland has been forced into, and the inane rationalizations that the rich are quick to submit in order to justify the economic inequality. He is able to highlight the absurdity of these attempted