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A Modest Proposal Thesis

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What was the point of writing the essay “A Modest Proposal?” Jonathan Swift wrote this essay to describe the poverty issue of Ireland in 1729. During this time many of the people of Ireland that could not support the raising of their children so they was sold for money. In “A Modest Proposal” the narrator describes his proposal and attitude while Swift calls for a change of the conditions in Ireland while using shocking and exaggerated statements. The narrator has a proposal in the essay “A Modest Proposal” that is considered outrageous. The proposal of the narrator was about the parents not being able to raise their kids so they are used for food to scare the people of Ireland. The narrator says, “… it is exactly at one year old that I propose …show more content…

He talks about about how the women are used as breeder, and how the women are just one person to every four men. Swift describes “..I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration, that of the hundred and twenty thousand children, already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, where of only one fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle, or swine, and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore, one male will be sufficient to serve four females.” (Swift 4) Here swift uses numbers to describe the women and men of that time. Also Swift describes how many kids are born and can be took care of so the parents sell them to get money. Swift describes “. I again subtract fifty thousand, for those women who miscarry, or whose children die by accident or disease within the year. There only remain an hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents annually born. The question 40 therefore is, How this number shall be reared, and provided for? Which, as I have already said, under the present situation of affairs.” (Swift 3) Here Swift describes the amount of children that are born even after a miscarry and the children who die during birth or before. All in all the main point of

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