Jonathan Swift’s ‘A Modest Proposal’ talks about how children of poor people are a burden to their parents and how the parents should fatten up their children and then feed them to Ireland’s rich land-owners. But in the last sentence of ‘A Modest Proposal’, “I have no children, by which I can propose a single penny; the youngest being nine and my wife past child-bearing” is one example of the verbal irony in the whole pamphlet.…
The article by Jonathan Swift begins by making a description of the poor ladies with children and nowhere to stay in the streets of Ireland. The description clearly shows how the families have problems in terms of finding for themselves. With large families of up to six children, the poor ladies have no option of feeding their families. Finally, the audience thinks that the author would provide an interventional strategy that would help out the street families. The surprise ending in this article begins at the instant when the author mentions the idea of selling out children’s parts for money. It is quite shocking that the author…
On the current assignment I chose the Swift’s A Modest Proposal to write about. The reason I chose this topic it caught my attention of selling children to the kingdom for food to clean their street of beggars. I will be giving my opinion on the author’s way of cleaning the streets of one kingdom. I must really say “WOW” after reading this proposal.…
“A Modest Proposal” is a strongly written satire by Jonathon Swift. In the essay, Swift applies nearly all of the elements of satire. Some of the most obvious elements are his use of creating a persona and his exaggeration. Beginning by analyzing the title, “A Modest Proposal for 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”, it is a reasonable topic for the essay. However it is not at all modest. Swift absurdly creates suggestions to make the poor children beneficial. His primary goal in this essay is to shame the English, bring up the issues of poverty and motivate the Irish.…
when you introduce the problem in order to express the necessity for an immediate solution. Some…
In his satirical essay "A Modest Proposal," Johnathan Swift examines treatment of the poor in Ireland during the eighteenth century: “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London; that a young healthy child, well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food; whether stewed, roasted, baked or boiled, and I make no doubt, that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or ragout.” (Swift 763) In his essay, Swift describes a repulsive suggestion for dealing with the children of the poor in Ireland. Swift describes in detail how poor children should be raised and sold to the wealthy at age one. He details how the children should be and how they should be prepared for the wealthy to consume. Swift's abhorrent proposal for the poor children not only points out the awful treatment of the poor in Ireland during the eighteenth century, but also Ireland's inability to devise a more desirable plan for the poor. His use of statistics and graphical depiction of the poor children's lives adds to the credibility of his essay.…
An Anglican priest known for his political pamphlets, Jonathan Swift, in his essay, “A Modest Proposal”, suggests that the infants of poor mothers should be sold as food on the market. Swift’s proposal is to call attention to the horrid living conditions in Ireland to convince the English to stop exploiting the Irish. He accomplishes this by encouraging the audience to believe he’s creditable, using statistics and the advantages of his proposal to appear logical, appealing to the emotions of the reader.…
In the essay “A Modest Proposal”, the author Jonathan Swift proposes that 1 year-old infants born to impoverished Irish parents should be sold and cooked for the gourmet and luxury pleasures of the privileged people of England . Swift claims that because there are an enormous population of starved children, eating them would not only help control their population, but also contribute to the overall economic wellness of the country. This essay will be dedicated to analyzing “A Modest Proposal” by observing the claim, warrant, and support present in the proposal, as well as evaluate the overall composition of the essay.…
The late 1600s and early 1700s in particular were a difficult time for Ireland. Catholics made up most of the Irish poor who constituted 80 percent of the population and owned less than one-third of the land. As the Protestant English landowners took over in the 1700s, the Irish Catholics dove deeper into lives of famine and poverty. In “A Modest Proposal”, Jonathan Swift presents several claims and supporting evidence that the consuming of the Irish nation’s growing number of children will solve the poverty epidemic as well as decrease religious enemies.…
In our society, satire is among the most prevalent of comedic forms. This was not always true, for before the 18th century, satire was not a fully developed form. Satire, however, rose out of necessity; writers and artists needed a way to ambiguously criticize their governments, their churches, and their aristocrats. By the 18th century, satire was hugely popular. Satire as an art form has its roots in the classics, especially in the Roman Horace's Satires. Satire as it was originally proposed was a form of literature using sarcasm, irony, and wit, to bring about a change in society, but in the eighteenth century Voltaire, Jonathan Swift and William Hogarth expanded satire to include politics, as well as art. The political climate of the time was one of tension. Any criticism of government would bring harsh punishments, sometimes exile or death. In order to voice opinions without fear of punishment, malcontented writers turned to Satire. Voltaire's Candide and Swift's Modest Proposal are two examples of this new genre. By creating a fictional world modeled after the world he hated, Voltaire was able to attack scientists, and theologians with impunity. Jonathan Swift created many fictional worlds in his great work, Gulliver's Travels, when he constantly drew parallels to the English government.…
Choose a partner with whom to work. Discuss each question, finding specific evidence from the text that supports your response. Write thoughtful notes on your responses and the evidence (please cite all examples by paragraph #).…
that the Catholic population will decrease, a plus for the Protestants of Ireland, due to the fact…
“A Modest Proposal” is a satirical piece Jonathan Swift wrote to entice the Irish to break away from England. He utilized babies as his hook, talking about eating and using them for clothes or shoes. He wrote examples of how women are the ‘breeders’ and how their babies should be eaten to decrease the population. Also, he uses more examples of how the population would, and has changed. Swift took advantage of the situation at hand and used ghastly examples to get attention. When all was said and done, it was the government that attempted to take control of everything they could, population included. Jonathan wrote about the government corruption, which ties in with how China is run, as well as their own corrupt government. Ireland and China…
One of Jonathon Swift’s most famous works, “A Modest Proposal” needs to be read after the reader gets a little familiar with Swift himself and why he wrote it. Once you realize the situation and the author’s unique writing ability and thought process the proposal seems a little less farfetched and less sickening. I am in no way in agreement with the proposal just more understanding of where it came from and why he did it. The meaning of the proposal takes a major hit when the situation at hand takes a twist from Swift’s personal situation.…
The border between Mexico and the United States has been left open, leaving the entire nation accessible to disease, violence, and economic ruin. Being able to come and go as they please, illegal Mexican immigrants have came to U.S. in the millions, and with them they have brought terrors to our citizens. Every year they smuggle millions of pounds of cocaine, and once settled within our communities, their gangs and criminals begin to murder, steal, rob, and commit other crimes, creating a threat to our society. Americans are unemployed, and live in poverty, while each year hundreds of thousands of illegals join the millions of others who have come to America to steal jobs from those who deserve them. Millions of dollars also go to providing health care and education to these animals.…