Analyzing The Essay 'A Modest Proposal' By Jonathan Swift

Imagine living in 1700 Ireland with no modern technology, no running water, no electricity, nothing. Now visualize being neglected by the English tyranny, thus living in poverty and starvation; struggling to make ends meet. Unfortunately, this horrible event occurred back in 1729, and to bring awareness to the difficulties that Ireland was facing, author Jonathan Swift wrote a satirical essay called A Modest Proposal. To prove his theory, Jonathan Swift creatively incorporated modes of persuasion into his writing to convince that the Irish were being treated poorly by the English. A mode of persuasion Swift used a number of times in his essay was ethos, which is used to convince the audience of an author’s credibility. For example, Swift used this element in his essay by stating “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust” (Swift 2). The credibility in this context is associated with Swift’s American acquaintance who assures that infants are quite nutritious. In the past, the world viewed Americans as corrupt people, so when the author states this, he is trying to convince that

Jonathan Swift uses pathos At last, the final form of persuasion that Swift used was logos. Logos can be described as the logical appeal; it is used to convince the reader by the use of logic or reason. Swift incorporated this type of persuasion by stating that the number of people in Ireland are around one million and a half, and then he precedes to calculate the number of children who are born into poor families; the final number being around a hundred and twenty thousand (Swift