A Modest Proposal Rhetorical Analysis
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift:
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift was written in 1720 as a satirical piece to highlight the child abuse inflicted on Irish catholic children by well to do English protestants. Swifts native heritage of Ireland put him in an excellent position as an observer and, eventually, a commentator, on the extreme poverty experienced by the Irish population. This poverty mostly caused by the ‘ruling class’ … the English…and their appalling mistreatment of Ireland, its people and its land. In A Modest Proposal, Swift satirizes the English landlords with outrageous humour, proposing that Irish infants be sold as food at age one.
The main audience for Modest Proposal started as The English Protestants however it did not succeed with but took strongly to the Irish. Ireland lived on the edge of starvation and poverty for many years, causing this to create an importance to the Irish. Demonstrating an effective use of …show more content…
Swift uses these techniques to create a powerful essay underlining the poverty in Ireland. The Imagery in the essay such as; ‘whereof only one forth part to be males, which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle, or swine.’ This would be known as animal imagery creating the feeling that children are like savage beasts. Another reference to animal imagery ‘I have reckoned upon a medium, that a child just born will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solar year if tolerably nursed encreaseth to 28 pounds.’ Telling the reader that a child is very like an animal, a piece of meat. Swift kills off the children in his piece to create the satirical climax. Swift repeatedly uses simple sentences to be painfully obvious on the point he is making however, he is mocking the audiences intelligence by being so obvious. The reader of the time would find it hard to cope with the understanding needed to take in this
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift was written in 1720 as a satirical piece to highlight the child abuse inflicted on Irish catholic children by well to do English protestants. Swifts native heritage of Ireland put him in an excellent position as an observer and, eventually, a commentator, on the extreme poverty experienced by the Irish population. This poverty mostly caused by the ‘ruling class’ … the English…and their appalling mistreatment of Ireland, its people and its land. In A Modest Proposal, Swift satirizes the English landlords with outrageous humour, proposing that Irish infants be sold as food at age one.
The main audience for Modest Proposal started as The English Protestants however it did not succeed with but took strongly to the Irish. Ireland lived on the edge of starvation and poverty for many years, causing this to create an importance to the Irish. Demonstrating an effective use of …show more content…
Swift uses these techniques to create a powerful essay underlining the poverty in Ireland. The Imagery in the essay such as; ‘whereof only one forth part to be males, which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle, or swine.’ This would be known as animal imagery creating the feeling that children are like savage beasts. Another reference to animal imagery ‘I have reckoned upon a medium, that a child just born will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solar year if tolerably nursed encreaseth to 28 pounds.’ Telling the reader that a child is very like an animal, a piece of meat. Swift kills off the children in his piece to create the satirical climax. Swift repeatedly uses simple sentences to be painfully obvious on the point he is making however, he is mocking the audiences intelligence by being so obvious. The reader of the time would find it hard to cope with the understanding needed to take in this