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A Modest Proposal Rhetorical Analysis

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Ireland had been going through some rough times of famine when “A Modest Proposal” was written. They had been going through a hard time in the farming, for at least three years before “A Modest Proposal” was written. Jonathan Swift used sarcasm turned into satire. He was trying to point out that they weren’t actually that bad in the famine, not good off by any means, but not that bad. He was trying to prove a point in which they won’t go to the most desperate means to survive. He challenged the status quo by saying that selling the kids into slavery, not killing them when they are in the womb, and the benefits of eating the children and how it would help both families and the economy. The first way that Swift challenges the status quo is that he says that they should sell their children into slavery to save their parents from having to deal with them and pay for them. He says that by selling the kids into slavery it would take the burden off the parents, after the first year. Swift says, “a child just dropped from …show more content…

He said, “...it would greatly lessen the number of papists…(Paragraph 10-1)”. He thought that the poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own, instead of having to give up their cattle, rent or corn, they could just barter their children off as food. He also said that it would also help the nation's stock by “... increasing fifty thousand pounds of ammun…(Paragraph 10-3)”. He also thought it would bring down the breeding in cattle and livestock because so many people wouldn’t need it as much because they would be alright on their children, that it would be enough to last on for a little bit. Swift also thought that it would “... increase the care and tenderness of mother toward their children…(Paragraph 10-6)”. He figured that the husbands would be as fond of their wives during their pregnancy as they are when their mare has a

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