A Modest Proposal Analysis
A Modest Proposal
Literary Analysis
By J--- -----------
J--- -----------
Mr. H-----
Period 6
2 May 2011
Jonathan Swift’s Use of Satire and Exaggeration 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 Swift’s essay provides a good insight on the themes of ignorance, human greed, and human corruption. In this essay, Jonathan Swift writes as if he were being completely serious. However, his intention is for everyone, or anyone in the right mind, to see that his personal opinion is actually the opposite of what he writes in the essay. He wants to use irony to cause the readers to understand that he isn’t being serious at all. For example, he ironically explains his hopes that he “will not be liable to the least objection” (Swift 803). He actually wants objection. Another way he shows that he isn’t serious is with the title of the essay, “A Modest Proposal”. As the reader reads further into the essay, they see that Swift’s proposal isn’t modest at all. They see that Swift’s proposal is an outrageous one. Swift’s proposal is for the poor Irish families to allow their own newborn children to be killed for food. His goal in this proposal is towards “preventing the Children of poor People in Ireland from being a Burden to their Parents or Country, and for making them beneficial to the Public” (801). In detail, the plan proposed by Swift is for families to contribute a majority of their children’s flesh as food for themselves, or a
Literary Analysis
By J--- -----------
J--- -----------
Mr. H-----
Period 6
2 May 2011
Jonathan Swift’s Use of Satire and Exaggeration 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 Swift’s essay provides a good insight on the themes of ignorance, human greed, and human corruption. In this essay, Jonathan Swift writes as if he were being completely serious. However, his intention is for everyone, or anyone in the right mind, to see that his personal opinion is actually the opposite of what he writes in the essay. He wants to use irony to cause the readers to understand that he isn’t being serious at all. For example, he ironically explains his hopes that he “will not be liable to the least objection” (Swift 803). He actually wants objection. Another way he shows that he isn’t serious is with the title of the essay, “A Modest Proposal”. As the reader reads further into the essay, they see that Swift’s proposal isn’t modest at all. They see that Swift’s proposal is an outrageous one. Swift’s proposal is for the poor Irish families to allow their own newborn children to be killed for food. His goal in this proposal is towards “preventing the Children of poor People in Ireland from being a Burden to their Parents or Country, and for making them beneficial to the Public” (801). In detail, the plan proposed by Swift is for families to contribute a majority of their children’s flesh as food for themselves, or a
Cited: Swift, Jonathan. From “A Modest Proposal.” Prentice Hall Literature: World Masterpieces. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2003. 801- 809.