[ 21 ]. “Setting Sail: Irish Immigration During the Potato Famine,” J.G. Burdette (published May 12 2012, accessed November 6 2012) http://jgburdette.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/setting-sail-irish-immigration-during-the-potato-famine/…
The final technique that Swift employs to exacerbate tensions between the British and Irish as a result of Ireland’s struggling economy is a satirical ethos, impersonating an economist to suggest that without British cooperation, eating children is the only viable resolution to Ireland’s economy. Swift diction reflects this purpose as he employs economic jargon repeatedly throughout the essay, including as “commodity, yield, computed, per annum, and net profit” (Swift) . He contributes to the persona later in the essay, when he makes realistic calculations to “prove” that cannibalism will benefit the economy , such as “subtracting thirty thousand couples” to find that “there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand breeders” (Swift 6). After…
In A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift presents a scheme to rid Ireland of the starving masses leaching off the state by starting a trade that promotes killing and eating the young poor poppers as livestock. Through this message paired with proper and detached diction, gruesome imagery and heavy amounts of satire, Swift illustrates the dehumanization of the masses by the elite. Additionally, he highlights the contradictions between seemingly civilized rules of society compared with the actual corruption at its core. Presenting the solution to the issue, Swift calls the masses potential “breeders”, which brings them down to the level of livestock (2634). Using this barbaric way of looking at another human being paired with the detached and proper…
Although Ireland was an autonomous kingdom during the eighteenth century, the English Parliament still exerted its power from afar. The weak social relations made it so that England overlooked the economical instability in Ireland. The anger that lies behind A Modest Proposal holds both England and Ireland dually responsible for the turmoil. This is illustrated first by dehumanizing the Irish people. The proposer compares them to livestock, referring to the women as “breeders” (Swift 342), and proposes, “a young healthy child” will serve as “a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled” (Swift 342). By doing this, Swift criticizes both the English government for merely viewing the people of Ireland as insignificant, and also attacks the Irish for allowing themselves…
Between 1815 and 1920, 5.5 million Irish immigrated to the United States. The English forced the Irish to become Christian. However, when the Church of England became Protestant, the Irish suddenly found themselves defending Catholicism fighting against Protestant landowners. In early 1800s, Protestant Landlords began evicting their tenants and shift from agricultural production to cattle raising. The tradition of migration have started way back when the peasant with tiny plot of land migrate to harvest new land. Migrated for part of the year and following the crops, planting or harvesting other places in Ireland or England, Wales, Scotland. However, the potato famine disaster, where a type of fungi destroyed the potato crops, which the people depend on, forced them to immigrate far to the US. By 1855, over 1 million people had died from hunger and sickness. During the great potato famine, about 1.5 million people immigrated to United States from Ireland motivated by the need for survival.…
Famine is a widespread shortage of food that may apply to any species, which is usually accompanied by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Author Tom Haines uses the short essay “Facing Famine” to discuss the rising famine epidemic in high hopes of provide insight and a new perspective to his audience. Providing his personal experience of visiting a village in a third world country, Haines provides images and emotions to the reader illustrating the events that occurred. Immediately he recalls that on the first afternoon spent in the village he was promptly shown a shallow, wide hole with nothing but hard dry earth at the bottom. Due to the lack of precipitation from the drought the lush farming lands have withered away or died. In turn eliminating all source of income, causing poverty. Once in poverty each household could no longer purchase essential supplies such as water, food, and medicine, ultimately leading to famine. Haines next introduces reasoning why the government of this third word country is not at blame either: “Three times, the government tried to…
At first, the reader may believe that Swift’s purpose in writing this essay is to convince the reader that overfeeding newborn children, killing them, and then selling the meat to the rich will improve Ireland’s economic problems. He backs up this argument with facts and reasons as to why this solution will put an end to poverty in Ireland. For example, Swift lists six reasons why overfeeding newborns will benefit the country. First, the number of dangerous Catholics will decrease. Second, the poor will get more property. Third, the wealth of the nation will increase. Fourth, mothers will not have to worry about raising children. Fifth, this new food will be welcomed in taverns. Sixth, marriage will be better because women will take better care of newborns so they can be sold and men will take better care of their wife’s so that she can make more babies and sell them. Swift presents these arguments in a satirical way. Even though the audience is able to see the positive outcomes of this solution however; they also know that this solution of killing newborns is extremely inhumane.…
Five Points is, as the extended title boasts, "The 19th century New York neighborhood that invented tap dance, stole elections and became the world's most notorious slum." Unlike most subtitles that promise all by the moon and the stars, all these statements and more are absolutely true. The Five Points neighborhood quite literally defines the term melting pot, a mixture of cultures, faiths and political ideologies that was at one time volatile but also a source of amazing creativity.…
Awhile before the horrendous events of the Black Death occurred, there was The Great Famine of 1315. I had not previously heard of or known about this period of history before writing this paper. At the beginning of the 14th century, the population in Europe had steadily been growing so large that there was no room for any crop failure or shortage. However, climate change in the spring of 1315 gave them a wet spring that proved to be harsh on the people until the summer of 1317. The people were weakened in health and shake up quite a bit after this. About 10-15% of the population had died from pneumonia, bronchitis, tuberculosis, or other similar illnesses due to a weakened immune system. They were able to recover, slowly, afterward (“The Great Famine 1315-1317”,…
In summary, the black plague was an impactful event on European life. It impacted European life in both good and bad ways. The worst occurrence of the black death would have been the loss of life. Death of immense proportions surrounded people’s live each and every day. The black plague was so chaotic that it even affected the economy, and depending on where people were in society, affected them in different manners. The best thing to come out of black death would have been in the category of medicine and health. It opened people's eyes up to the word of how diseases work and how to treat them. Living during the era of the black plague was rough and hard. I wouldn’t want to live in that era, but I am glad it occurred. I'm glad it occurred…
The potato crop had become the staple diet of Ireland by the 18th century, and in the 19th century, the rural population of Ireland was growing rapidly. The potato was hardy, dense, nutritious, and relatively easy to grow in Irish soil. By the 1840s, nearly half of the Irish population depended exclusively on the potato for their diet, and the rest of the Irish population also consumed it in large quantities. In 1845, the Irish population expected an unusually productive harvest because the weather had been favorable, but instead, the potato crop rotted and failed because it was taken over by late blight. Late blight is a disease of potato and tomato plants that is caused by water mold, and it destroys the leaves and edible roots of the potato plant. In the year of 1845, 50% of potatoes were lost. The famine continued to get worse in the following years and went on until 1849. By then, around 2 million people had left the country, which represented 25% of the population. Many of the Irish who left made their way to America’s Atlantic seaboard, and 75% of Irish coming into America went to New…
“The Great Potato Famine” in Ireland brought hunger, harm and horror to Ireland. A lot of people died, and a lot of Irish fled to America in hope of a better life. Across the atlantic was it not as amazing as they hoped. The Irish was looked at as dirty catholics and on a lot of job ads it said “No Irish needs to apply”.…
Famine seen in the 1800 as described by Blainey (2001) is near non-existent in first world countries and due to how accessible information is society is aware of the plights of third world countries and assistance is given where possible. This is a major improvement on the societies of the 1800’s who had to deal with famine within their own community and very little could be done. Today the improvement in information access and education has improved society in many ways in regards to mental health, education for the majority and equality. There is still inequality in gender when it comes to pay but it is vastly improves from the 1800’s and we can hope to see more improvement in this arena as more information is shared and process by the masses that will affect…
Braun, J., Teklu, T., & Webb, P. (1993). Famine as the Outcome of Political Production and Market Failures. Third World Quarterly, 24(4), 73-76.…
The troubles of a farmer were part of a larger economic problem that was affecting…
