Satire In A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift

Every person in the world has flaws, and when there’s a large group of people, some of these flaws will stand out and become prominent. Satire is a tool that is used to expose these flaws to the people themselves as well as the general public. It does bring change to society by exposing these ills and making people aware of problems. There are a lot of ways that satire works, like exposing people to things about themselves, exposing ignorance, and exposing societal problems. Some of these methods are more effective than others, but over time, they all seem to work in one way or another. Everybody has flaws, but sometimes groups of people share flaws or opinions that are very problematic. Satire has a way of exposing these so that people

A common issue within civilizations is power hungry people. This is shown in A Modest Proposal where it states, “I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children” (Swift 76). This shows that the landlords, even though they have so much more than everyone else in the country, continue to take and take even though they don’t need more. Noting this in A Modest Proposal may make the landlords think twice about how what they are doing is ruining the lives of these poor people. Another issue it exposes is how much people crave fame and recognition. Swift writes, “...whoever could find out a fair, cheap and easy method of making these children sound and useful members of the commonwealth, would deserve so well of the public, as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation” (Swift 14). Here, Swift is arguing that people don’t do things because they are the right thing to do but to get recognized for doing something good. This is one underlying issue in society, that people often do the right things for the wrong reasons. Related to fame, another issue in society is that people often listen to and trust celebrities, even though they definitely don’t know everything. John Oliver touches on this during Last Week Tonight when he points out that during debates on the news over the validity of climate change, Bill Nye the Science Guy is almost always debating that it is real. Although he is a real scientist, it would be beneficial for other scientists to share what they have to say about the issue. However, because he is a celebrity, people listen to him. This form of satire is also effective in showing people what they should change about themselves and their