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Political Criticism: A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift

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Political Criticism: A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift
Jacob Vinson
Murder Mayhem
Mrs. Davidson
November 1st 2017

Political Criticism- “A modest proposal”

In 1641 the Catholics owned 59 percent of the land, by 1703 they owned 14 percent (Conditions). In Ireland most of the people were catholic but by the rule of king Edward III the protestants were moving into Ireland. Ireland has always been very religious so the protestants moving in and taking away most of their religion was a bad thing. In the events of 1704 the Catholics were not allowed to buy or inherit land (brief history of Ireland).
In 1720 Swift wrote a small article that mixed sarcasm and satire to make a call to arms for the people of Ireland. Swifts occasional writing from this period demonstrates the skill it takes to suggest …show more content…
Swift uses sarcasm and satire to create his article “A Modest Proposal” which suggests that the citizens of Ireland start eating the newborns which would solve the entirety of the overpopulation problem. This is not what Swift actually means when he suggests eating them babies, he actually means that he wants Ireland to rise up and overthrow the English government. Swift suggested selling babies as a gourmet dish for the rich people. Swift suggested using the babies to replace cattle and stuff as the main food source for Ireland. In my opinion Swift had the completely wrong idea of confronting the English government. Swift should have went outright and said something about it instead of writing a letter filled with baby eating nonsense. His letter may have inspired a lot of baby eating and more than likely murder. This letter was disturbing and fairly graphic in the ways of, OH YEAH BABY EATING!!!! These are my thoughts on “A Modest Proposal”.

Works Cited
"Conditions in 18th-Century Ireland (ca. 1729) - Personal Web Pages." 28 Mar. 1999, http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~lyman/english320/sg-Swift-18thC.htm. Accessed 1 Nov. 2017.

Swift, Jonathan “A Modest Proposal”

"A Brief History of Ireland - Local Histories." http://www.localhistories.org/irehist.html. Accessed 2 Nov. 2017.

SparkNotes: A Modest Proposal: Context." http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/modestproposal/context.html.
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