A Modest Proposal Rhetorical Analysis

As a writer, Jonathan Swift used a wide array of methods in order to voice his opinion on issues taking place, during his lifetime. His most notable works, were satires, that made light of current events and showed a humorous, yet interesting prospective on the matter at hand. Perhaps his most highly acclaimed piece of writing was A Modest Proposal, which he wrote in the year, 1729. Swift was a well-regarded writer during his lifetime, and this piece in particular was aimed at the wealthy readers in the country. Overall, Swift’s use of irony cannot be mistaken for ineptitude or taken in a remotely serious tone, for his proposal the definition of hyperbole. In his proposal, Swift delves into the issue of starvation and hunger among the Irish

For one, he claims eating the children would end the starvation for those in the town, but his main goal is to kill of the future beggars and systematically lower the overall total of the lower class. Furthermore, he illustrates the upper-class as materialistic and mostly apathetic toward the epidemic stemming outside their comfortable confines. Swift’s description of the wealthy and how they could use the leftovers to make clothes, or painting the picture of a Walmart for carcasses illustrates a society that cares for little else but tangible possessions. Swift’s proposal concretely states that the only use poor children have in their country, is to be turned into shoes or eaten, while the real prospective Irish men, help turn the country’s fortunes

Swift states, “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 Boyled, and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a Fricasie, or Ragoust.” ( http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/modest.html ) The idea that children could be prepared like any sort of cattle, is a rather morbid method of thinking, but the dark humor that Swift exemplifies in this story further illustrates the absurdity of his proposal, if taken seriously by a