The essay “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathon Swift is the proposal to the Irish people to sell and eat their babies. In “A Modest Proposal”, Swift plays the role of a troubled economist who wants to help the country of Ireland, who proposes that, in order to help fight the poverty and overpopulation of Ireland, the children of the poor parents to be sold as food to the rich. As a result, he claims that not only will the population be reduced, but the earnings of the poor will grow if they sell their children. He proposes that the meat of the children of Ireland would be a treat to both the English and to Irish property-owners, and would therefore be highly wanted after for special occasions. In the essay the author Swift gives the readers six reasons why this idea is good. First, it would greatly lessen the number of “Papists” or Roman Catholic, because they were over run, the women were the main “breeders” or mothers of the country, and their …show more content…
This is one of the obvious groups that “A Modest Proposal” was offensive to because why was it fair to kill the children to solve the poverty strive throughout the land. For any sane individual you would not want to kill children and it is not fair for them to born just to die a year later. Swift could have suggested that they use criminals or people who have recently died instead he used children. One might would question Swift and why he would want to kill innocent children, Swift had children of his own so why would he suggest killing babies. Although Swift included that his children were too old to be eaten and that his wife was too old to bare children you would have to wonder why he could not sympathize with other parents who love their children and would not want to kill them. I feel that it was unfair towards the babies that Swift was proposing to be killed, a baby is an innocent human being and should not be killed in order to save a
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
To start off, the full title of Johnathan Swift’s writing is "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents, or the Country, and for making them Beneficial to the Publick." From just reading the title of the book “A Modest Proposal”, I was thinking it was a story about romance and how a gentleman proposed marriage to his female lover. His proposal, in effect, is to fatten up these undernourished children and feed them to Ireland's rich land-owners. He does this to illustrate how backwards and bad the state of Ireland is and the social classes. For these reasons, he looks at the politicians to blame for the poor conditions because of the apathy they presented while in the decision making process, to resolve the conditions.
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.
In the excerpt “A Modest Proposal” Jonathan Swift makes a proposition to help the people of Britain and Ireland. The basis of the proposal was that the lower class people would sell their children, usually and preferably at the age of one. They would sell them to the people in the wealthy higher classes. You may ask why they would do such a thing; sell their beloved kid for money? That in itself is the proposal, for the lower classes to sell their kids to the wealthier people to eat of course. The idea is that the poor people would not have the money to raise the child and at the time there was a problem with overcrowding and famine occurring. So why not kill two birds with one stone and solve both those problems with one simple solution.
In "A Modest Proposal," parody is one of the fundamental components Jonathan Swift uses to clarify how Protestants mishandled Irish Catholics. The audience is attracted by the several literary elements within his unrealistic proposal. Morally, the reader is attracted by the problem in which their country is in. A problem not only caused by the ones in power, but by the common people as well. He leads to having the people critically think about their values when he states that, “It is exactly at one year old that [he proposes] to provide for them in such a manner as instead of being a charge upon their parents or the parish, or wanting food, and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall on the contrary contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands” (Swift 409).
“A Modest Proposal” is a perfect definition of juvenalian satire. The main focus in the story is to propose a simple way to remove the poor by creating a new dish they could create: babies. What Jonathan Swift proposes is, instead of seeing women with children at their skirts, the women sell their babies before the age of one as a source of food. With this method, Swift says that the poor will have a source of income that any woman can do, and the rich will have a brand new delicacy.
A Modest Proposal was published during a time of great duress in the early eighteenth century, when Ireland was facing massive socioeconomic and religious oppression from England while enduring a famine. The proposal's author, Jonathan Swift, came up with a plan for, as the extended title of his proposal says, “Preventing the Children of Poor People From Being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public”. (Swift, 52) This was a notable problem in Ireland at the time, as many poor children and their parents, affected by the famine, were reduced to begging in the streets. His plan, quickly revealed to be a satire on the situation, involved cannibalizing babies in order to feed the general populace. When
This essay will have no value unless the reader understands that Swift has written this essay as a satire, humor that shows the weakness or bad qualities of a person, government, or society (Satire). Even the title A Modest Proposal is satirical. Swift proposes using children simply as a source of meat, and outrageous thought, but calls his propo...
He wrote his mock proposal as a policy “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). Swift builds a logical argument in favor of essentially treating human children as livestock to sell for meat and hides (Swift 1201). “A Modest Proposal” is rife with irony, but Swift carries a serious tone from beginning to end. He never breaks character, and if unaware that this is a satiric piece, leaves the reader questioning if the author is legitimately proposing his preposterous plan. The proposed solution to raise infants for slaughter was not genuine, but Swift was highlighting an authentic and pervasive social issue. He claimed that the absentee landowners “have already devoured most of the parents” (Swift 1201) and that he “could name a country which would be glad to eat up our whole nation” (Swift 1205). Swift’s message was that England was abusing the Irish people and their resources to the point where millions were left impoverished, begging, and suffering with few means to survive. The author sardonically proposes authentic solutions in stark contrast to cannibalism, but in tracts “printed during his lifetime the various proposals were italicized to indicate Swift’s support for them” (Swift 1204). Among these solutions are taxing absentee
Jonathan Swift’s ‘A Modest Proposal’ is by far the most bizarre and disgusting proposal that I believe I have ever had the displeasure of reading. Swift’s proposal as distasteful as it was (no pun intended) dealt with addressing the poverty that affected Ireland in the 1700’s. The issues that Swift addressed were indeed of dire importance but the manner in which he initially suggested these problems be solved is like reading a sick and twisted horror story. Swift proposes the idea of eating children as a means to end poverty. I think that I can safely say that every human in the world at some point has had a crazy thought, but to actually put it on paper and distribute it as if it would be a welcomed idea is mind boggling to me, especially in the era that this was suggested. He actually compares women to “breeders,” men to cattle, and using children’s skin for clothing! For me, I am a visual thinker and reading a proposal like this put the most horrible images into my mind. It is almost like driving by a train wreck, you don’t want to look but you can’t look away! The absurdity of the idea and the way that he suggests it would make marriages happier and mothers more tender to their children in hopes of a larger payout is completely disgusting. I would not have imagined that Swift would have been allowed to further his writings during this time due to the town or city folk thinking he was a danger and had absolutely lost his mind! The more I read the story it became clear to me that his initial proposal was merely an attention getter. I believe that he wanted the shock factor to lure people in and then tell them his real proposal.
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 Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”, he insisted that poor Irish Catholics should participate in outrageous behavior that are similar to eugenics. He proposed that in order for the poverty-stricken Irish Catholics to make money, they should fatten up their infants and sell them as a cuisine. As a result, the mothers can make money and prevent their poor children from growing up as beggars, a criminal, or an inadequate member of society. Swift’s proposal to sell infant flesh as a means of profit for the poor families and a delicacy for the rich ties in with the immorality of eugenics. However, this style of writing that Swift demonstrates is a persona of the overbearing protestants who stereotyped the Irish-Catholics. Swift’s proposal has been known for being based on satire and irony. Therefore, Swift’s intentions of creating this proposal were to underline the importance of treating the poor and homeless no less than human beings. Consequently, Swift would most likely be taken back from the cruel practice of eugenics. Since eugenics is a form of controlling human reproduction it is similar to Swift’s proposal to decrease the number of future beggars and delinquent offspring’s. Additionally, both ideas address financially unstable people as a nuisance to society, which encourages stereotypes. Eugenics and
In Swifts proposal he uses many appeals and satire to try and make a convincing proposal to save Ireland from the extreme famine and tragedies on the streets. His suggestion of killing babies and selling them for “delicious stew,” is an outrageous idea to save an economic crisis. Even though this is a satirical piece, the idea that Swifts mind was thinking and making a plan to “murder” children is gross. The proposal does have strong promises that it will fix the crisis in Ireland, but is most certainly not the correct way to do so. I believe Swift chose such a outrageous plan to catch the government heads and wealthy eye and actually realize there is a serious issue and its come to crazy proposals like this to solve the crisis. The article is quite juxtaposition by being humorous and disturbing, but very well written by the author Jonathan Swift.
By ironically acknowledging the ugliness of England. Rather than preaching about the his ideal opinion of the nation, Swift utilizes his capabilities in literature to reflect the corruption and decay of the society directly. In his essay A Modest Proposal, by phonily offering the solution to the overpopulation of Ireland, Swift illustrates his scorn and resent to the authority. By suggesting the idea to consume a healthy infant that "whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled", Swift depicts the ruthless behavior of the greedy upper class who devour from not only the pain of physical pain of the poor but also the sufferings of the souls and mind. He states" as [the landlords] have already devoured most of the parents! seem to have the best title to children". By referring the landlords as monsters who participate in cannibalism, the inhuman nature of the rich has been unraveled. In addition, in A Modest Proposal, Swift infers the lower class human beings as unworthy livestock through the perspective of the riches by claiming the marriage between lower classes, the "savage", could only be considered as the process of " breed" or animal reproduction. By assuming males and female as livestock, it argues "only one forth part to be male, which is more [people] allow to sheep, black cattle or swine [to be]". With humorous but modest tone to present the bloody and cruel solution, Swift satirizes the incompetence and uselessness of the authority and the indifferent attitude of the riches towards the suffering people who have been robbed by them while shows his great sympathy for those who lost their rights, properties, and