Satire In A Modest Proposal

Satire’s often show the representation of the satirist and depending on the genre of satire the appearance of the satirist is either more well known, or it allows the satirist’s to separate themselves from their work. Satires that are monologues are often told from the perspective of the satirist and their opinions of the problem. Rochester being a formal verse satirist wrote a poem about people with their rational of what is right and what is wrong. This poem allowed the concept of that people are the only people with reasoning where they want to try make everything to make sense, while animals are off doing their own thing and are perfectly content with their life style. On line 225 Rochester says, “[m]an differs more from man, than more from beast” by saying that people all act differently based on an idea while we all act on instinct still. This allows us as readers to see Rochester’s point of view.

Swift shows that an author may separate themselves from their writing in A Modest Proposal when he said that he had learned of the practice of selling and eating children from an “American Acquaintance” when being reassured that this was a normal practice that was done in the Americas (298). The act of distancing himself from the idea being proposed in the satire allowed swift to show people it was not his idea but defiantly an idea that someone may propose at any moment. This proposal would either shock people into finding an alternate solution to the famine or would cause backlash against Swift if he had said it was his idea. Removing yourself as the author allows you to present a satire without damaging effects in return if people did not understand that it was