A Modest Proposal Discussion

Responding to “A Modest Proposal”

The essay written by Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal”, may not have been as effective to the poorer class of society during that time, but effective towards the upper class of society. The author describes of a place that had a population that consisted largely of beggars and struggling families. My thoughts are that the two categories of people either had little to no education, nor have the means to associate with the avenues that this essay may have disseminated through. It would be the higher class of society that would read and understand what the author was trying to say with his essay. The actual goal that I feel Mr. Swift was trying to achieve was to shine light on the subject of a society that was poor and was quickly becoming overly populated with families that were unable to care for one another. I believe that he was trying to introduce a solution into society that we call now a days “adoption”. I feel that even though Mr. Swift’s ideas and solution were unethical and inhumane the essay was still persuasive. Mr. Swift indicated his stance, and then supported it with facts that were written in a fashion to sway a person’s opinion. He also stated a counter claim with a persuasive response to argue the counter claim. His conclusion was strong and although his essay was unethical it brought attention to a realistic problem. My belief is that Mr. Swift’s real proposal was to bring light onto the over population of a society that had an inability to care for their offspring, and pose a solution of adoption to a wealthier family that may have wanted more children, but were unable. Mr. Swift expressed through this essay a stance on a problem and then wrote persuading statements to support his beliefs. His essay was filled with supporting arguments followed with facts and statistics. I do feel that he has met the criteria for a persuasive essay and was successful in grabbing the reader’s