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Rhetorical Analysis Of A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift

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The essay “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift was first published anonymously as a pamphlet in 1729. The form of this essay consists of an introduction of his proposal in which he presents the situation of Ireland at the time and builds up momentum towards his proposal, then in the main body he presents his proposal and further backs it with arguments convincing readers of its efficacy and conclusion stating that he is only doing this for the “public good”. Swift unswervingly addresses the state of Ireland, which at the time of English warfare (1629-1640) was left in ruins. Although Swift wrote this essay in 1729, the country took 100 years for the state to rebuild itself. When the reader reads the very title of this essay the words “modest proposal” prepares the reader for a proposals of bettering the socio economic issues. As mentioned earlier the writer here ratifies the persona of a worried economist who gives a ‘modest’ recommendation that, in order to fight poverty and overpopulation of Ireland, poor children …show more content…

The modest proposal is of course anything but modest: It is savage, frightening, perhaps even insane”(Mcgill.enotes). Overall this essay is very disturbing, in the thirty-first paragraph the reader gets a sense of hopelessness when Swift refuses to hear any argument on his proposal saying that, “let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients”(1729:Swift.para 31). This piece of literature is similar to fiction in a way that is gives details insights on the time and place of Ireland, but we know that it is a pamphlet published to propose a radical idea to help change the situation of Ireland. If this was a piece of fiction one wouldn’t take it seriously but even when it’s non-fiction one cannot take seriously this absurd idea of cannibalism i.e. the wealthy eating the children of poor and should take it as a satirical piece of

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