ipl-logo

Pathos In A Modest Proposal

779 Words4 Pages

Humans have impacted the global environment significantly. Human populations have rapidly increased for the past few centuries. Imagine a world where sustenance is rare but people are plenty. Imagine the world where everyone's shoulders are touching one another and there is no room to move. “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift is an extremely sarcastic solution to a problem plaguing Ireland in the 1720s overpopulation. Swift utilizes ethos, pathos, and logos to argue that eating infants is the only solution that would take care the situation in Ireland; this solution, he argues, is more humane to use the solution according to the tone of Swift.
Swift uses pathos to make people feel bad for the children. He describes women and children begging on the streets of Ireland. The children either works, grow up to be criminals, fight for the Pretender or seek their fortunes in the far west. Swift states that "...to beg sustenance for their helpless infants, who, as they grow up, either turn into thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country, to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes" (ln.7). He makes children seem like they are useless to society and will just end up living a life of crime or being weak and leaving their country. This makes the audience feel emotionally for the children. Swift uses pathos to generate strong emotions towards the children-emotions that attack his argument.
Swift uses ethos by quoting his barbaric friend from London is saying he has been having the same the idea of killing the kids to make the audience …show more content…

Just imagine you see a lot of mothers are begging on the streets for food for their babies, don’t you want to help them by eating their babies. Then the family will have hope to live on and live happily ever

Show More
Related

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of A Modest Proposal

    703 Words  | 3 Pages

    Instead of begging for scraps Swift proposes that everyone is capable of making a modest living by simply breeding babies to be eaten. Killing two birds with one stone in a sense. By eating children, the number homeless people roaming the streets diminishes and at the same time the food shortage is also being solved. Swift uses logos thought his proposal to get his insane point across.

    Read More

  • Analyzing Rhetorical Techniques Used In Florence Kelley's Speech

    242 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Florence Kelley’s speech, she states her reasons why child laboring should be a law and should be banned. In her speech, Kelley uses many rhetorical devices. But three stood out the in my point of which was diction, details/description and she evokes the sympathy towards the audience before the convention of the NAWSA in Philadelphia on July 22. As you read the speech, Kelley illustrates the use of pathos; in which evokes the audience and readers to sympathy. As she said, “The children make our shoes in the shoe factories; they knit our stockings, our knitted underwear in knitting factories.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Devices In A Modest Proposal

    683 Words  | 3 Pages

    Swift continues this provocation, addressing the “more thrifty” people who “may flay the carcass” and use the skin in order to make “gloves for ladies” and “summer boots for fine gentlemen.” Swift uses a simile to compare preparing children by “dressing them hot from the knife, as [done when] roasting pigs.” Swift uses this simile to exaggerate what a simple and traditional part of the diet children would be in Ireland. In essence, Swift yearns to provoke the Irish people to fight for social equality and a mended economy—the only manner of achieving this equality and shared wealth is by government

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Devices In A Modest Proposal

    817 Words  | 4 Pages

    And all the information the American gives on how to prepare a child to eat helps hold up the credibility of what Swift has to say. Irish man Swift was not afraid to take a couple of jabs at the greedy English rule. “I grant this food [children] 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 is utilizing a metaphor here, he means that the English landlords take so much money from the Irish peasants that they have figuratively “devoured” the parents already. He more than blames the English for a lot of Ireland’s problems and it shows through his ironic and humorous

    Read More

  • Ethos Logos In A Modest Proposal

    826 Words  | 4 Pages

    In “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, there are many disturbing remarks that make the readers uncomfortable. The purpose of his essay was to try to make the Irish people open their eyes so that they would take better care of themselves. At this period, the Irish politicians were corrupt and the people were not willing to fight to regain their country from the recent occupation of Ireland by England. He used the idea of eating the yearling children of poor families in order to accentuate the idea that the only people the wealthy men of Ireland cared about was themselves, and not the lives of the Irish citizens. The author uses logos to his advantage in order to show the overall amount of people that are in poverty and how they would be able

    Read More

  • A Modest Proposal Ethos Pathos Logos

    623 Words  | 3 Pages

    Swifts text was effective in using ethos, logos, and satire to convince the English to do more to address the issues of Ireland. Swift used ethos by showing he was a well-educated, and thoughtful man. He shows us when reading the text, we see the way he uses his words. With the phrase “having turned my thoughts for many years upon this important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of other projectors…” (Jonathan Swift, 356) it shows that he thought a lot about this topic. Swift explained that selling Ireland's children would help with many problems Irelands families are having.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Devices In A Modest Proposal

    831 Words  | 4 Pages

    The ideas he proposes such as selling children like objects, eating them like food, and murdering them are all illogical thinking. Selling, eating, and murdering children clearly does not solve the problem of poverty, nor would any reasonably sane person propose such solutions. For example, Swift indicates in paragraph five that his proposal will eradicate abortions and the murdering of children by their mothers, “There is likewise another great Advantage in my Scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary Abortions, and that horrid practice of Women murdering their Bastard Children, alas (Swift, 2). There is no logical indication that taking children living in poverty away from their mothers and subjecting them to being bred, cooked, and sold is in anyway going to reduce abortion. Swift tells the reader that he is the sole expert on this subject using an appeal to authority to make his argument contain more validity, however he fails to back this up with any sincere ethical appeals that help further

    Read More

  • Swift's Ethos Pathos Logos

    92 Words  | 1 Pages

    Swift does a good job using ethos, pathos, and logos to describe the Ireland’s economy and how he thinks it can be improved. All of his references to the killing of innocent children were just a way to open up the eyes of their society to how the Irish poor beggars were not being given any type of aid. He uses ethos in the best way and also does a good job using logos. Swift has ideas that are not that ethical but does an interesting way to get his ideas

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Essay: A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift

    576 Words  | 3 Pages

    Swift’s use of food imagery is an attempt to lighten the mood but gives off a abhorrent effect. This is exactly what Swift wants; Swift starts the sentence by saying, “a young healthy child well

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal

    1163 Words  | 5 Pages

    The article gives appeals to the article emotionally, “their helpless infants who, as they grow up, either turn into thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country, to fight for the Pretender of Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes” (1). He aims this at the thoughts of the audience by trying to make them feel sorry for the children by saying they will not be good for anything. Not only does Swift use various rhetorical devices, humor, and emotional appeals to appeal to the audience, but also an ethical appeal. He says, “…that it will

    Read More

  • Irony In Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal

    867 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” is a very interesting take on how the Irish government should cure the famine that the country was then facing. However, the entire proposal was completely bizarre, and the whole point of the essay was to bring attention to the idea that they needed a solution to the all the problems they were experiencing but the proposal was definitely not it. He even had a strongly developed plan as to how his proposal would work which makes the reader feel as if he is serious about selling children, eating them, and/or using their skins as a fashion accessory; however, ultimately this proposal is not his true goal. Jonathon Swift skillfully used different styles of writing, such as imagery and irony, to show why the Irish should sell their children to the rich to eat.

    Read More

  • A Modest Proposal Overpopulation Analysis

    940 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jonathan Swift’s essay, A Modest Proposal, is famous for satirically suggesting that people start selling their babies for food, which would logically solve the overpopulation and starvation problem in the world. Despite this less than feasible solution, overpopulation is a serious problem in the world, given that there are over seven billion people alive currently. The excessive amount of people living in this world has an adverse effect on both society and the environment. The environment has been destroyed by human pollution and is depleted of natural resources due to the sheer amount of materials needed to support such a large population. In fact, many plastic water bottles used by people are discarded as trash and pollute bodies of water (Soechtig & Lindesy, 2009).

    Read More

  • A Modest Proposal Satire Analysis

    834 Words  | 4 Pages

    “I think the next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it. ”-Frank A. Clark (Psychology Today). A man named Jonathan Swift saw many problems in his government and society. He realized it needed to be fixed. Swift’s strong beliefs pushed him to write satire to try and help Ireland.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift

    483 Words  | 2 Pages

    Swift uses his satire as a way to draw attention to daily conditions that many families in Ireland are suffering from. His extreme plan of eating children is used as a way to draw the attention of the government towards helping improve the economy. By using irony Swift is able to help make his plan a more believable solution to invoke change. Even today Swift 's plan can be seen as a persuasive technique, using logic and statistics to convince the

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal

    1083 Words  | 5 Pages

    Critical Analysis of Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” In the work entitled “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, the theme of social injustice is enhanced by the use of verbal irony to convey a charged message. The ambiguous title and introduction to Jonathan Swift’s masterpiece does little to prepare the reader for shocking content revealed later in the text. Swift’s work is powerful, poignant and persuasive because it strikes at the heart of the modern readers ethics, as it likely would have done for the author’s contemporary audiences. Jonathan Swift’s 1729 masterpiece is a satirical metaphor centered around the pervasive assertion, “the English are devouring the Irish.” Jonathan Swift gives a more comprehensive exordium concerning his work stating that is it “a modest proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents and country, and for making them beneficial to the public (Swift 1199).

    Read More

More about Pathos In A Modest Proposal

Open Document