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Jonathan Swift Rhetorical Analysis

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Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet and cleric. In 1729, Swift published a satirical essay concerning a hard situation in Ireland. A full name of this pamphlet is A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public. Narrator, with intentionally grotesque method of writing, says that Irish poor people can only escape their poverty by selling their children as food to the rich landlords: "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...". The pamphlet was written …show more content…

Swift 's pamphlet parodies the style and method of these, and the cruel irony of his own method of curing a problem shows his personal attitude at the attempts of all this paper journalists to achieve any real progress by writing their useless pamphlets.
Firstly, the main target of satire Swift saw in those reformers who treat people as objects, thereby equating them to the simple goods. Swift was especially insulted by projects that tried to fix population and labor issues with a simple cure-all solution. Swift satire draws not only and not so much against this kind of reformers, but against the overall situation in Ireland, where no one as he thought wanted to spend truly effective measures into practice.
Secondly, by making a parody of the political and social values of his ages, Swift significantly expands the traditional thesis that people are the riches of a nation. In a state like Ireland, he says, people have become a burden; this principle is valid only if the population is provided with work, giving a …show more content…

Through violent and severe style of narration author is trying to encourage ordinary people to get rid off illusions and see a huge problem of Ireland. Swift shocks the reader, makes him think critically and understand motivations and values. Moreover, in this absurd thesis contains a harsh criticism of British politicians who made this crisis real. In the process he shows a number of Ireland’s social problems and indifferent attitude with which they have been treated. Swift’s critical pamphlets have made a huge political effect and have become an important document in the history of the Irish national liberation movement. A Modest Proposal is considered to be a masterpiece and a great example of the satirist 's

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