The Beginning of the Meatpacking Industry June 24, 1838 near Sandwich, Massachusetts the man who was going to change the meatpacking industry forever was born. Gustavus Swift left school at the age of 14 and joined his older brother butcher’s shop which he was unhappy by the lack of advancement, Soon after he made the decision to move to Boston but his father loaned him $25 to stay and not leave his hometown. Swift stayed and used $19 out of the $25 is father loaned him to buy a heifer , slaughtered it, and sold the beef from door to door. By 1859 he had opened his first butcher shop in Eastham and from there his business began to grow. Although people saw Gustavus Swift as bad and a Robber Baron he also was a philanthropist in many ways. …show more content…
In his slaughter houses swift was known as a tough taskmaster who on a daily basis inspected plants and tyrannized employees if he saw evidence of what he considered “waste”. If Swift saw so much as a piece of animal fat to make soap he would fire the workers. Swift once hired an efficiency expert to make suggestions at the office headquarters but then fired him as a fraud(world biography). The man protested and decided to keep him but sent him to squeegee blood into the drains of the slaughter house. Although he was very hard on his workers the way he worked and what he did made a great impact on the way America works their meatpacking industry today. The way Swift treated his competitors was harsh. He found a way to get rid of them if they got in his way he did not like competition he would find anyway possible to try and get rid of them. If his competitors did not buy his meat by the amount he wanted he would boost up the prices higher than they would normally be. No one likes competition but Swift was especially against them he wanted to find anyway possible to destroy them in a way so they wouldn’t be problem for him …show more content…
Gustavus Swift tried everything in his power to make his business grow and make it better for the people and easier on the way meat got to them. The way his slaughterhouses were through the inside was not good at all being that they weren’t sanitary for the people. If his company would have not been regulated his company would have grown into a bigger and better company. His business grew in such a short amount of time it was such a shock. His invention the refrigerated railroad car was one of the smartest and easiest thing he could have done to his business, because after that his business boomed. Although at first it wasn’t going well for him he still managed to make it work. Gustavus Swift had a great impact on America from his invention of the refrigerated cart to the way all of his slaughterhouses grew all over the world. It made meatpacking a lot easier to transfer instead of it having it delivered from door to door. (Hamilton) His company grew so big making it worth $25million dollars in less than 15 years (world
In analyzing the texts, the reader can tell right away that both authors take very different approaches to their topic. Swift creates this elaborate plan to end poverty in Ireland by selling children to the upper class for food. It is an extremely satirical essay using irony and logic to try and sway the reader towards his absurd idea, but even goes as far to say that it is not against the hierarchy to do something so extreme, “And besides, it is not improbable that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such a practice, (although indeed very un-justly) as a little bordering upon cruelty…” (Swift 149). He used various examples of logic and statistics stating how he has already analyzed the different factors to make his idea logical, “I have already
Swift is outraged by the savage, inhuman acts of the Irish people and blames the British oppression. The proposal itself is a symbol of the British oppression. The mere fact that anyone would fatten up human beings like livestock and devour them is preposterous, yet the British oppression devours and consumes the Irish people in a different kind of way.
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
Swift refers to his essay as unserious by becoming more insincere in order to show how horrific his proposal is. He late uses his dishonesty and insincerity to his benefit to show what his true meaning behind his proposal. He states that he, [has] the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work” (Swift 7). Swift discusses about having a low personal interest in killing all the children because of how might the audience think he’s untrustworthy and insincere. His audience must think that of him due to the fact of how easy it is for him explain that killing children would be the best solution. He shows how he has no personal connection to his proposal because of the fact that he is still assumed to be insincere and untruthful. Swift also might not have any personal relationship to his proposal since his children are above the age he provides people when insisting they sell their kids. In addition, Swift suggests that through his insincerity there will be another problem presented although not as major as the problem at hand. He still continues on with his proposal keeping in mind that there will be conflict in the future. Swift states that, “it will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of papists among us” (Swift 3). He expresses that there will another collateral
Swift’s plan is an ironic attempt to "find out a fair, cheap, and easy Method"(503), for converting the starving children of Ireland into "sound and useful members of the Commonwealth” (503). His “solution” is to sell a child, after he or she reaches one year of age. “Instead of being a charge upon their parents, or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding and partly to the clothing of many thousands”(503). From Swift’s perspective using the children, as food is the most efficient and cheap way to make the children a contribution rather than a burden.
His use of diction relating to livestock as well as his cold, calculated tones and constant appeals to foreign authority mirror and comment upon the elite?s absurb rationalization for their abuse and exploition of the dredges of society. He constantly likens beggers to animals, even comparing children to ?sheep, black cattle or swine? and even speaking of them interms of ?fore and hind quarter?s. His tone is so disturbingly uninvolved and methodical that he is able to calculate exactly how many meals a baby will serve and even pictures cannibalism as a socially acceptable occurence when ?entertaining friends.? Throughout the piece Swift constantly seeks to jusify his proposal by mentioning the suggestions he has received from his influential friends in foreign countries. This illustrates that the narrator?s mind is even farther removed from the immediate crisis and famine. As people read through the passage, Swift is able to sneakily encourage people to question the authority of their elitist leadership.
Swift obviously wants the readers to realize that he has studied the problem for a very long time. He even confides from a commendable person about the proposal, thus stating, “A very worthy person, a true lover of his country, and whose virtues I highly esteem, was lately pleased in discoursing on this matter to offer a refinement upon my scheme” (Swift 3). By referencing experiences of friends and acquaintances, Swift asserts that his proposal is indeed feasible and can be applied to remedy Ireland’s economy and social ills. He writes, “But with due deference to so excellent a friend… my American acquaintance assured me, from frequent experience…” (Swift 3). Another one, “But in order to justify my friend, he confessed that this expedient was put into his head by the famous Psalmanazar… who came from thence to London above twenty years ago… that in his country when any young person happened to be put to death, the executioner sold the carcass to persons of quality as a prime dainty” (Swift 3). Likewise, from a grave author, an eminent French physician, who says that infant’s flesh are more plentiful in March because there are more children born in Roman Catholic countries due to the fish diet that they eat during Lenten season (Swift 2). Swift undoubtedly uses ethos to show the readers that he actually gathered facts from people
Swift’s proposals were to encourage the Irish industries to fix the problems they were facing. No one was listening to Swift, so it infuriated him because he was not being listened to. Swift was not being heard, so he wrote “A Modest Proposal” to try and grasp the people’s attention. There is no proof that Swift’s proposal actually brought about the political and economic change he was working towards, but he did have a reaction from his friend, Lord Bathurst. Lord Bathurst wrote a letter back to Swift jokingly agreeing with the proposal. Lord Bathurst claims the proposal would be beneficial to his own family of nine children. In the letter Lord Bathurst says, “But I have four or five children, that are very fit for the table.” The proposal may have not moved like Swift wanted it to, but Lord Bathurst is proof that if it was thoroughly read and thought about then it could have changed the country (Lindquist
As he says in the essay: “Here was I, the white man with his gun, standing in front of the piece; but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind.” The main issue, is that he feels compelled by those people who were watching him and expecting him to shoot down the elephant. Although he holds a gun while other natives do not, he doesn't have the real power to do what he wants; instead, he is pushed by the invisible force that the people have inserted on him. He is also frustrated by the fact that he can do nothing about it but to give in and kill the elephant at last. It is exactly how the imperialism work, it pushes you to do what you are not willing to do. Of little difference, in “A Modest Proposal”, Swift attacks the society by carelessly endorsing cannibalism in hopes to help Ireland through their economic crisis; He demonstrates this by humbly proposing and assuring “that a young healthy child, well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food.” Without a doubt, he’s implying that society should eat children shows that the individual (the child) is seen as an unimportant individual to society; therefore, is not valued when considering an effective resolution to their
The way in which Swift presents his speaker’s ridiculous ideas in “A Modest Proposal” not only projects negatively onto his political opinions, but also depicts his own opinions by positioning himself as opposite to his speaker. Swift presents his own opinions by endowing his speaker’s with a shocking lack of empathy for human beings, implying that Swift himself is at the other end of the spectrum. In Erin Mackie’s article "Swift And Mimetic Sickness", she postulates that “In ‘A Modest Proposal’ Swift mimics the modern policy man to exhibit his incapacity, at once cognitive and visceral, to register a categorical, that is epistemological, failure and its accompanying moral horrors. With his plan for factory farming Irish infants, the Modern Projector makes us sick precisely because he is not sickened” (364). In doing so, Swift not only establishes himself in the opposite camp, but also positions anyone who disagrees with his political stance to become identified with the cannibalistic speaker in “A Modest Proposal”. In spite of the fact that his speaker’s unfeelingness is perhaps exaggerated, it is hard to win an argument in which you are embodying the role of an upper-class cannibal. Thus, Swift’s self-defeating representation of the upper-class causes any upper class person's opinion against Swift to be preemptively invalid in an epistemological sense.
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,”
Although the use of incongruity is used to seize attention through a sarcastic view, another way Swift uses satire to grab England’s attention is through reversal. Reversal is used by Swift to switch the roles of babies to pigs, to emphasize the idea that these babies taste like pig. It is expressed in the text where the author points out, “I rather recommend buying the children alive and dressing them hot from the knife as we do roasting pigs” (Swift 99). This piece of text is evident of how Swift makes the point of having children served similar to pigs makes it sound serious, yet sarcastic making his point more clear to the reader with hidden meaning. The way Swift places reversal in the text makes it clear to England of how insane he may seem, but for a cause. This effective way of satire is undeniable of how Swift achieves his idea to bring poverty to an end to Ireland.
When Swift's essay is read, it can be rather confusing due to it being written in a very complex form of the language previously mentioned. For those who aren't aurally trained to hear this language, it sounds as if Swift meant exactly what was wrote. In consequence, when his essay was published to the masses, the people of Dublin Ireland actually took his advice. During the famine there were many rumors that started to spread that their were people who have actually reached a level of desperate that they revered to consuming other humans to satisfy their needs for nutrients. Though most cases where just rumors, there have been a few actual documented cases of cannibalism in Dublin around the 18th century. O Grada, a leading expert on famine
Jonathan Swift wants the readers to view him as a pragmatic and heartless realist who has found a solution to a serious issue. Swift used sophisticated diction to list seemingly sensible reasons as to why his horrifying solution wasn’t absurd. His persona exhibits one of a lunatic, yet it changes once during the passage. Preceding the speaker’s joyous rant about how infant 's flesh will be in season throughout the year, he discussed abortion and how sacrificing poor innocent babies was inconceivable in paragraph 5 which is something a normal human would say. Then he returns to detailing his argument about the pros of eating the underprivileged children. The speaker 's image seems quite apathetic, yet in fact he is quite ironic. This can be seen in the very last sentence of the last paragraph when he writes, "I have no children by which I