Essay on Rhetorical Analysis of a Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

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.

Satire is a form of literature in which an author tries to demonstrate his or her point of view by ridiculing. The author uses heavy irony and sarcasm in order to criticize a social issue. A perfect example of a work of satire is Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal. In this satirical essay, Jonathan Swift attacks on the issue of the Irish poverty in the 1700s. The essay sarcastically suggests that Ireland’s social and economic problems would be quickly solved by putting the children of impoverished Irish families on the food market. Through heavy exaggeration, Jonathan

A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift was an innovator of the writing style called Satire. Jonathan Swift used an extreme example to make his point. In A Modest Proposal Swift uses the example of cooking, eating and selling the children of poverty stricken families to help make income for the people of Ireland. This extreme example got many people's attention after all Swift suggested cannibalism of young children. That is what Satire is, the use of humor, irony, or exaggeration to expose and criticize other peoples vices or stupidity to make a point.

Swift demonstrates that he has put in research time to create a satire that achieves his purpose. Swift demonstrates this throughout the essay. In this certain example his beginning to calculate the number of poor kids. “I calculate there may be about 200,000 couple whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtract 30,000 who are able to maintain their own children…I again subtract 50,000 for those women who miscarry, or whose children

Overall, Swift is also using irony by relating this unheard of cruelty to babies to cruelty animals. He suggests that buying children alive and “dressing them hot from the knife as we do roasting pigs” (411) is the best way to serve them. This was intended to tell the audience that the Protestants are basically treating the Catholics like animals with no regard to life. This carefully crafted technique lets the reader see how malicious the Protestants are actually being, and that they are killing Catholic babies alive by ruining any chance at a good life. Swift did not actually mean for people to go out and cook babies like pigs to get the most satisfactory, he simply meant that if you are going to treat them like pigs, you might as well eat them like pigs. If the people of Britain can’t see that through adults, maybe

Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" can be said to have a satirical surprise ending, even though the reader is well prepared for it based on the tone and style of Swift's writing and any prior knowledge of the author's intentions. Swift's final solution to the problem of overpopulation is for the poor to sell their children as food for the rich. He introduces this proposition quite early into the document "A Modest Proposal," which is why the ending is not so much as a surprise as it is an intriguing rhetorical argument. The reason why the ending might seem surprising is that it seems as if Swift may indeed be presenting a realistic argument of what can be done about overpopulation, in spite of all evidence to the contrary. A reader not used to inferring messages based on tone or style might be forgiven to misread the beginning of Swift's document. For example, a person who has never heard a sarcastic tone could very well believe that Swift was being serious; in which case the reader would continue to view Swift's proposal as reasonable and either consider him a monster or a genius. Generally, Swift uses the surprise ending to alert the readers to the absurdity of the original problem that reveals social injustices and inequities. One of the biggest surprises in Swift's document is when he states, "I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be urged, that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the

The welfare of the human being as members of a community has historically been addressed in a variety of literary forms. Jonathan Swift in his essay “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country” (The Art of Writing: A Modern Rhetoric, edited by Cosmo F. Ferrara, Random House, 1981, pp. 155-170) employs savage irony to present his societal commentary. Written in 1729 to expose the tragic conditions of the lower classes, the satire attempts to manipulate readers with its sense of ridicule and scorn. A plea for human indecency, the essay he subtly suggests their responsibilities to society in a manner which remains applicable to America.

This piece written by Swift may be satirical and a horrendous idea to the common people, it would fix the problems that Dublin is having. By selling off their newborns, which they can’t afford anyway, they can make quite a bit of profit, helping with the poverty problem. Soon, they won’t have to worry about the little thieves running around because all of the children that have been stealing will have grown up and there won’t be any new children coming into the business. Lastly, with the new generation being butchered and devoured, there would be a rapid decrease in the

Another way he utilizes parody to demonstrate his point is the point at which he is discussing how this framework will really help illuminate the issues of premature birth and marriage. He talks about how this will diminish premature birth rates since ladies will esteem their kids as a wellspring of wage instead of a weight that will cost them more cash that they don 't have. Likewise, Swift expresses that "men would progress toward becoming as affectionate as their spouses, amid the season of their pregnancy, as they are presently of their female horses in foal, their dairy animals in calf, or sows when they are

Throughout this text Swift starts off with just mentioning how there are many people living in poverty on the streets which also means children. He starts off with how seeing this while visiting or just in everyday travels can be very disturbing and off putting for the city which is when he brings up his proposal of how to decrease people on the streets. Swift suggests the idea of slimming down the population and children born into poverty by only having about a sixth of the one hundred and twenty thousand children born actually grow up and have full lives. He then suggested that the other hundred thousand children should be raised until age one to grow from the milk of their mothers rather than wasting supplies necessary for people of society

The way he puts in detail about the way killing babies because he wants the reader to fall in disgust in what is being said; Swift wants the reader think this proposal is grotesque; Swift wants the reader to think and agree that this is the most disgusting thing that they have every read; Swift also wants the reader to think about what is going. He wants the reader the know that there are people suffering and there is something that should be done about it. He wants the reader to come up with an alternative, something better to save the Irish. He even challenges the reader to do so, saying "Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these things and like expedients, till he has at least a glimpse of hope that there will be ever so hearty and sincere attempt to put them in practice,", (p.30). He says this to let the reader think about the many alternatives instead of the consumption of innocent children. He even gives reasons that the killings of the babies will be beneficial for his

Swift writes very objectively, he counts on how many children are born unwanted, the text is very factual. "I have already estimated the cost of rearing a beggar to about two shillings a year, including rags; and I do not think any gentleman would murmur of a price of ten shillings for a good, fat baby body.” Swift writes as if this idea long ago would have taken place if it were not for the absence of the correct mathematical calculations. His logical argumentative reinforces the satyr, and also reflects the scientific way of thinking that is often found in the literature during this time.

Another aspect of the Enlightenment Swift addresses is utilitarianism; Swift’s proposer demonstrates how his proposal will both maximize happiness and reduce suffering by maximizing utility. Firstly, Swift’s proposer discusses how this system will create income and employment for the mothers who are “ready to starve for want of work and service” (2635). Secondly, he argues that instead of starving to death, “the country and themselves are happily delivered from the evils to come” (2636). The starving Irish, according to Swift’s proposer, would prefer to become “breeders” in order to gain income for their living and

Throughout Swift’s content, he uses rhetorical devices such as pathos, logos, and ethos. Jonathan Swift intelligently uses pathos to play a huge roll on people’s emotion in an effort to convince them of the legitimacy of his argument, “… and butchers we may be assured will not be wanting, although I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife, as we do roasting pigs,” (689). Logos appeals to the logical thinking of the audience is introduced in support of his case. Swift gives the logical portion by using numbers to show how many unfortunate babies would meet their demise yearly, “… the hundred and twenty thousand children, already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one fourth part to be males… one male will be sufficient to serve four Females. That the remaining hundred thousand may at a year old be offered in sale,” (689). Ethos was shown when he talked to high authority people about the situation, “Infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March... For we are told by a grave author, an eminent French physician… there are more children born in Roman Catholic countries about nine months after Lent,”

Swift successfully used the rhetorical triangle to convince the people of Ireland that his proposal to sell these malnourished children was a logical idea. To start, Swift uses ethos very usefully in his speech. Ethos is the appeal to credibility, and Swift successfully does this by including the amount of time that he has spent