Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” is considered to be highly satirical. Swift’s proposal of solving the hunger menace through the sale of poor children to wealthy folks is very satirical. He argues that the practice of selling children will solve the poverty problems since the nation will be depopulated. His projector explains the proposal in great depth, portraying Irish children as equivalent to cattle whose carcasses are used to produce ladies gloves and men’s boots. The rationale behind the Irish eating their babies is mocking in the sense that it satirizes people who make absurd claims in the name of solving a problem. As a writer, Swift satirizes himself by making claims of lack of economic gains from his altruistic works.
Jonathan and other artist at the time resorted to satire in a bid to address Ireland’s deplorable poverty conditions and the widened gap between the rich and the poor. By avoiding the conventional way of addressing similar problems, these artists were able to amass a lot of attention.
Chapter 11 Discussion #2
My parents and I had gone to visit my aunt who lived in Philadelphia. I was looking forward to meeting her since I had not seen her in my entire life. My aunt had two children; Jake and Amber. They were aged ten and eight respectively. The first encounter I had with my two cousins did not seem quite pleasant. They were uttering ominous words amidst greetings. I put that aside assuming they were just small children. Jake and Amber were television addicts and lovers of X-rated films. I wondered how my aunt had allowed her children to watch such obscene films at a tender age. We were treated to a rude shock when, during meal time, Jake inserted his unwashed hands into the serving pot containing...
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... state-controlled arts and exhibitions. Post-impressionists were keen to capture transitory events such as world wars, machines, advancements in technologies and the various patterns of the atmosphere. Futurism was an artistic movement in Italy which drew its inspiration from speed, modernity and technology. They portrayed the dynamics of the 20th century life, venerating war and the machine age. Its transformation was aided by Filippo Marinetti after publishing The Futurist Manifestation. The activities of this movement clearly fit into the descriptions of post-impressionist movements.
Chapter 15 Discussion
Humanities have been shaped by various prominent personalities whose contributions have revolutionized numerous areas in the study of humanities. These intellectual and philosophical icons set the foundation for a richer understanding of the humanities.
Jonathan Swift, a well-known author, in his essay “A Modest Proposal,” implies that the Irish people should eat children so that they can better their chances of survival. Swift supports his implication by describing how his proposal will have many advantages such as, eliminating papists, bringing great custom to taverns, and inducing marriages. He comes up with an absurd proposal to eat and sell the children to the elite so the Irish can have a brighter future. His purpose is to show that the Irish deserve better treatment from the English. Throughout his essay, Swift uses sarcasm, satire, and irony.
In “the Modest Proposal,” Dr. Jonathan Swift uses mockery as an element of satire to describe his plan to put all the useless kids of Ireland to good use, by raising them as food for wealthy citizens. This is much like the artist Jaron and the Long Road Home who ridicules his ex- girlfriend in the song “Pray for You” in a mocking manner. The two works also mock religion. Although they have both have this in common, there is a distinctive difference in the two: “the Modest Proposal” is dark and horrific, while “Pray for You” is light and humorous.
During the 18th century, a majority of the Irish population has suffered through poverty and famine due to the exploitation of the British government. In hopes to find social reformation of his nation’s crisis, Jonathan Swift uses one of the most efficient protests of his time: satire. In his satirical treatise A Modest Proposal, Swift grotesquely proposes an impractical solution of cannibalism, making the audience question their own morality. In addition, he consistently uses statistics and numbers throughout his pamphlet to mimic the pseudo-scientific style of his time. Furthermore, Swift’s fusion of his outrageous solution and what seems like accurate statistics allows his audience to reevaluate not only the severity of Ireland’s crisis,
His use of satire is a wise method for him to deliver his message. Due to the poverty the Irish families are being forced to live in, he suggests the children be sold. In his opinion, “A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends”(410). The reader will soon notice how Swift’s essay is absurd. With all the cynicism and mockery used by Jonathan Swift, it is obvious the literature piece is everything a satire should be.
Effectively ushering change in society or pointing out faults that have existed and gone unnoticed can be a daunting task for any social commentator. Often, blandly protesting grievances or concerns can fall upon deaf ears and change can be slow or non-existent. However, Jonathan Swift in his pamphlet A Modest Proposal, uses clever, targeted, and ironic criticism to bring the social state of Ireland to the attention of indolent aristocrats. He accomplishes such criticism through satire, specifically Juvenalian satire. Swift’s A Modest Proposal stands as an example of the type of satire that plays upon the audience’s emotion by creating anger concerning the indifference of the voice created. He complements such criticism with sophisticated, clever language which may be mistaken for the more docile Horatian satire. Yet, this urbane voice, coupled with irony and the substance of the proposals accentuates Swift’s motive to use anger as a force for action. Through his absurd/humorous proposals, stinging irony, and use of voice, Swift effectively portrays A Modest Proposal as a Juvenalian satire designed to stir emotions concerning the social state of Ireland.
In his satire, A Modest Proposal, Swift utilizes hyperbole and sarcasm to bring awareness of the unacceptable conditions of the Irish poor in the 18th century.
“A Modest Proposal” is contemporary to current issues in the United States today like how the “NFL” players and other people are protesting the national anthem for the oppression of African Americans by police. The Mexican Americans are mad that president Trump is trying to take away the “DACA” program from the children, dreamers, who were brought to the country illegally and raised here. Then there are the protest groups like “ANTIFA” they are against racism and fascism and say they are for the people and against violence when they use it all the time. “Unite the Right” protesters are all of the white supremacist groups like Alt-right, Knight Party, Neo-Nazis, Neo-Confederate, and the Traditional Workers Party. White supremacist was protesting
In Jonathan Swift’s satire, “A Modest Proposal”, Swift writes about the starving people of Ireland in the early 1700’s. He makes a wild and absurd proposal to help remedy the problems of overpopulation and poverty. Swift wants to make a political statement by using the “children” as satire to grasp the attention of the audience - the English people, the Irish politicians and the rich – and make them aware of the political, moral, and social problems. In “A Modest Proposal”, Swift’s arguments are presented effectively by using pathos (emotional appeal), ethos (ethics and values), and logos (logic reasoning and facts).
This essay by Jonathan Swift is a brutal satire in which he suggests that the poor Irish families should kill their young children and eat them in order to eliminate the growing number of starving citizens. At this time is Ireland, there was extreme poverty and wide gap between the poor and the rich, the tenements and the landlords, respectively. Throughout the essay Swift uses satire and irony as a way to attack the indifference between classes. Swift is not seriously suggesting cannibalism, he is trying to make known the desperate state of the lower class and the need for a social and moral reform in Ireland.
“A Modest Proposal,” by Dr. Jonathan Swift is a poem of seven paragraphs which describes a proposal “to prevent children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden to their parents and country and making them beneficial to the public” (Swift 430). Swift uses satire throughout the whole poem to emphasize the problem of overpopulation. He uses irony, reversal, understatement, incongruity and other techniques to get an emotional reaction from the audience, prompting a political or social change.
Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal is an attempt to bring attention to horrible the condition in which the poor or destitute people in Ireland are living in. His argument that children of these improvised people should be sold to “the persons of quality and fortune” (A Modest Proposal) for consumption, is Swift’s gruesome way of saying you might as well eat the babies, if no one is going to actually try to fix the problems of the poor in Ireland.
Humor can come in many different forms. Many people are aware of the blatant humor of slapstick, but it takes a keener mind to notice the subtle detail in sarcasm or satire. In A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift was able to create a piece of literature addressing the faults of the Irish culture while embedding in a humorous essay. Swift’s satire allows for the gravity of the Irish standings to be exploited under the disguise of a proposal for economic benefit.
I was surprised by the gap between the title and components of Modest Proposal. He uses the word “modest”, but his proposal is shocking and surprising. His suggestion was that the people in Ireland at the time of potato feminine should sell and eat children. At the time, there was lots of poor people in Ireland, and there were a problem that people were too poor to feed their children. Some of them killed infants when they were still in mother’s belly or stopped growing their children. He said his suggestion helps people to save money, clothes, and foods. Also, it makes parents’ affection toward children because they will be money or food. He suggested such a terrible and absurd proposal, nevertheless, he made a title “Modest Proposal”. I think he tried to share the bad situation of Ireland to readers. I feel his word “modest” means that the proposal is much more modest than what happened in Ireland. I mentioned that the attitudes toward children was terrible because it takes lots of money to raise children up. He tried to gather people’s attention by using this word.
The English writer, Jonathin Swift, writes about the economic prblems of Ireland and solutions in his satirical piece, A Modest Proposal. Swift wrote this to make everyone aware that there is a problem to be addressed in Ireland and that is it’s high poverty rate. Swift has done this by adopting a sarcastic tone in the beginning to captivate the reader until he can properly convey the true meaning behind his text.
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own” (Swift). Such beholders, as Jonathan Swift astutely emphasizes, are intended, through guidance of satiric narrative, to recognize social or political plights. In some satires, as in Swift’s own A Modest Proposal, the use of absurd, blatant exaggeration is intended to capture an indolent audience’s attention regarding the social state of the poor. Yet even in such a direct satire, there exists another layer of meaning. In regards to A Modest Proposal, the interchange between the voice of the proposer and Swift’s voice introduces another medium of criticism, as well as the opportunity for readers to reflect on how well they may fit the proposer’s persona. In such as case, the satire exists on multiple levels of meaning—not only offering conclusions about moral problems, but also allowing the audience to an interpretation of their place among the criticism.