The Product of Wealth at the Expense of the Unprotected Throughout the human history, communities, countries, and civilization made wealth sacrificing the weakest and the poorest. Societies perform different predatory practices to enrich the most powerful. In the past, slavery, child labor, and lack of human rights were the protagonists of the human exploitation. The face of the oppressor has changed throughout the time; during the feudalism, the land was from the feudal lord; during the monarchies the people were servants of the king; on the modernism; the working class receives a fraction of the total profit. In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the well-known The Communist Manifesto. This work was a presentation of the communist …show more content…
“The abdication and invasion of James II to Ireland drove Swift to England (Greenblatt, 1055).” “In 1729, Swift wrote his famous essay “A Modest Proposal,” a satirical portrait of the social and devastation of Ireland. This work mocks the commodification of poor by the wealthy landlords of both Ireland and England (Foster & Porter, 219). Swift dislikes the situation of his Irish people and by writing “A Modest Proposal” he raises his voice. The pamphlet opens with a reasonable statement: “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” (Swift, 1199). This essay outrageous proposes to fix the extreme famine and Ireland’s economic turmoil by fatten up children and sell them at the age of one. Swift forms a plan that would battle unemployment and overpopulation. The details of scheme will solve poverty because poor families will have extra income and less children to feed. Another issue that will solve the initiative is the prevention of voluntary abortions. In addition, the baby market will provide fashionable accessories and new gourmet cuisine of tender baby meat. Swift even provides information of about how many children need to be sell and the net profit for the business (Swift, 1200-
An Oxford University graduate, Jonathan Swift, in his article, A Modest Proposal, proposes a solution to Irelands growing poverty in the 18th century by proposing the selling and eating of innocent babies. Swift’s purpose is to state the benefits that the poor would gain from selling their one year old children to the wealthy to eat them. He takes on a concerning tone in order to convince the people of Ireland to consider and adopts his obscene plan.
Pamphlets were often used to spread ideas throughout Ireland in the late 1600s, however, many were discarded and ignored. “A Modest Proposal,” by Jonathan Swift, uses the pamphlets to his advantage by proposing a ridiculous idea to show how messed up the state of Ireland was. Swift proposed that the babies of all the poor would “contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands” or in other words, improve Ireland 's economic problems and standard of living (Swift). His main reason for proposing this drastic idea was because women continued to have children they could not provide food or anything for in some cases and Swift’s idea would make the children “beneficial to the public” (Swift). For these reasons, Swift looks at not only the politicians to blame for the poor conditions but the citizens of Ireland as well. In “A Modest Proposal”, Swift uses harsh
In eighteenth century Ireland, the nation was in a famine and an epidemic of poverty due to the high prices of land and food. Jonathan Swift saw a problem, so h wrote and spread what we call today, A Modest Proposal. Swift’s essay is satirical. He exaggerates and gives inaccurate statistics to deliver a thesis that runs deeper than the explicit one about eating babies. While much of the essay seems to imply that Swift’s persona eats babies, there are some instances where Jonathan hints at the ironic themes of the writing.
In the time frame that Swifts’ A Modest Proposal was written Ireland was going through political, economic, and religious struggles. In 1729 England had contrived, with the help of Irish venality, to wreck Ireland’s merchant marine, agriculture, and wool industry. Prostitutes in Swift’s paper are having kids like senseless people, but yet they can’t afford to feed them. Jonathan Swift proposes that his people should sell the babies and eat them. He thinks this would help solve the problem of over population. Swift tried to give his people pamphlets on how to fix the problem that was plaguing their country, but they ignored them. Swift says “These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants.”(1) Swift proposes that the mothers sell the babies for 8 shillings; the rich would find the child to be a delicacy and the extra money would go to the landlord. So everyone would benefit from this proposal. He does this as a way of making his people aware of what is going on in their
“A Modest Proposal” was written in 1729 by a satirical author by the name of Jonathan Swift. Swift studied at the University of Oxford and was also know for his popular writing in Gulliver’s Travel. The purpose for his satire “A Modest Proposal” was to enlighten the citizens of Ireland about their hardship and suffering. He informed them about their scares of food, money, and property, but provided a possible solution to their problem. To persuade the people Swift adopts a comforting and friendly tone to his audience for the people to react to his solution.
During the time period in which Jonathan Swift wrote his proposal, the disoriented economic state of Ireland had the citizens--to a certain extent--uninformed of governmental actions, and were mostly self-reliant or dependent on those of higher social status. Women often resorted to begging as an occupation to feed their children.
Jonathan Swift’s “A modest Proposal” (1729), constructs a solution for Ireland(A solution for what). He illustrates the poverty, and horrendous states of the social classes of Ireland. Mothers are out on the street begging for money or food to support their families. Swift proposes that all the children of the poor will “contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands” to help stimulate the economy and standard of living in Ireland. He thinks of this idea since mothers are unable to provide for their families, stating that these children will benefit the country. Swift blames government officials for the horrendous conditions these families are forced to live in. Swift uses sarcasm to as a way to show his annoyance of the politicians and citizens of the poverty-stricken Ireland.
The major goal of writing a work of satire is to subversively expose social ills through exaggerations. The satirist holds a social and moral responsibility to inspire resistance, and that responsibility is to draw attention to failings of the government and often the people. Generally, people learn through absurdities. It is the absurdities that are memorable, because they offer a new perspective on issue that would otherwise not be given second thought. Swift’s A Modest Proposal highlights how absurd language can be an effective educational and revolutionary tool as it speaks to the audience both emotionally and intellectually. The mind may be tricked by the absurdities, but the emotions of the reader created a sort of disequilibrium. The
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.
The parents spend all their time trying to feed their large families. Swift suggests that the poor Irish families should fatten up their undernourished children and sell them as food to the wealthy English landowners. In the beginning of ‘A Modest Proposal’, the problem is noticed by how crowded the streets are with women beggars that are followed by many children. The proposer has put a lot of thought into this important subject trying to find a fair, cheap, and easy solution to this poverty problem. He did take other proposals into consideration but found that those solutions were insufficient. He proposed that Irish children should be sold to the English landowners by age one, giving poor families some much needed income. He hopes his solution will not only help starvation, but overpopulation and unemployment in Ireland. Then, he continues to offer specific data for his proposal, which suggests the number of children to be sold, their weight and price, and projected eating patterns of their consumers. ‘A Modest Proposal’ ends with his argument stating that the practice of selling and eating children will have positive outcomes for the Irish families such as husbands having more respect for their wives and the parents valuing their children more. He believes this proposal will solve Ireland’s social, political, and economic problems. Once he has listed all the benefits of this solution, the proposer lists one possible objection to his proposal. Howard Bromberg states, “It is true, he says, that this proposal would greatly reduce the population of Ireland, but this very reduction of population would be beneficial, as there is no hope of more humane measures being taken to alleviate Irish misery, such as taxing absentee landlords, replacing profligacy with industry, or cultivating a spirit of mercy from landlords toward their tenants.” The proposer hopes to
In “A Modest Proposal,” Jonathan Swift writes of the poor men, women, and children of Dublin, Ireland crowding the streets due to the years of drought and crop failure. He estimates that 120,000 children are born each year and asks the question of how these people are to be provided for. Then he tells of his proposal. He states that 20,000 of the 120,000 may be reserved for breeding purposes, while the other 100,000 be sold to dine on. Swift offers several advantages to his proposal some being: the poor tenants will have something of value in their home, the wealth of the nation will greatly increase as well as the cost of caring for the child will be eliminated after a year, and eliminating the food shortages the nation is undergoing. The only counter argument he offers is that killing and eating those infants will decrease the population so much that it will make it easier for England to concur them. He finishes his proposal with a statement that he himself is not interested in making a profit since his own children are past the right age and his wife not being able to have any more children.
In A Modest Proposal, author Jonathan swift begins by discussing the dire poverty that is rampant in Ireland due to England’s exploitation, and the terrible state of the social classes. Swift then proposes that the poor people of Ireland sell their babies as food to the rich to ease their economic troubles as well as to improve Ireland’s economy and standard of living. Swift says this because the women in Ireland continued to have babies, but were unable to provide for them. He states his proposal will make the babies “beneficial to the public” (Swift 2). Swift also, blames the politicians for Irelands grim living standards because of the lack of concern they presented in the decision making process to resolve the poor conditions.
Jonathan Swift’s, “A Modest Proposal” by is a sardonic piece of work that provides an overwhelming sarcastic solution to the poverty and overpopulation issues that Ireland was having in the 1700s. He gives a sequence of nonviable and simply foolish solutions to the harsh treatment of children. The entire title of this work is, "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burden to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Public." This can sort of hint an idea on the bizarre insights that the writer is going to display. His resolution is to “fatten up” the undernourished, unfed children and sell them to a meat market where they will be sold for food. Thus, solving the economic and population problems in Ireland. Swift does this through a very sarcastic and harsh style that was advanced for the time that he wrote it.
Desperate times often call for desperate measures, and proposals of desperate measures are often met with swift criticism if they are found to be without rational thought and merit. It is unlikely that anyone in their right mind would consider, for any amount of time, the proposal of rearing children, or properly raising them, as food to help alleviate poverty-stricken Ireland in 1729. Yet, Jonathan Swift’s suggestion was satirical brilliance, and it was a modest proposal for illuminating the cause of Ireland’s woes. The proposal was not actually eating children but placing a mirror for the reader to reflect upon. The target audience of landlords, gentlemen, and other people of stature were more than accustomed to stepping on the poor on their way to the top. The solution was tailored to appeal to those who he implied are the responsible parties for perpetuating the disadvantages of the Irish people.
During the eighteenth century, Jonathan Swift was distributing pamphlets around Ireland in hopes of promoting intellectual growth in his homeland. As he noticed this was not making an impact, he decided to address the problems in Ireland with a different approach. Jonathan Swift took to paper and constructed “A Modest Proposal”, a satirical piece that proposes a humorous solution to the social, economic, and political problems in Ireland. Swift’s proposal suggests that babies who are born to poor families become a source of food for public, which benefits Ireland by reducing the overpopulation and adding to the food supply. In “A Modest Proposal”, Jonathan Swift uses satire to draw attention to his argument that the problems in Ireland are greatly affecting his homeland; in doing so, he portrays the themes of class division, suffering, and greed.