Summary Of A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift
1.
In his “A Modest Proposal” (1729), Jonathan Swift claims that Ireland is experiencing debilitating social issues because of England’s unjust policies.
Swift indirectly exposes the social issues that exists in Ireland by proposing a satirical solution to them.
Swift surfaces these issues in order to promote helping the poor and making them become beneficial members of society.
The author uses a satirical frame to address public issues, thus he mostly is directing his essay towards the general public in Ireland, the victim, and England, the culprit.
2. When one considers the satirical frame of “A Modest Proposal,” Swift’s persona implicitly mimics an individual who is serious and knowledgeable on the burdens Ireland is undertaking
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Swift dehumanizes poor mothers in paragraph six, which details how he calculates the number of poor children in Ireland. He starts by estimating the number of women capable of producing children, claiming that there are“two hundred thousand Couple whose Wives are breeders” (Swift, 6). Notice that Swift labels these women as breeders, a title that is regularly used to address animals. In the following paragraph, Swift transitions to dehumanizing children by stating that children are too worthless to be a “saleable Commodity” (Swift, 7). In this statement, he implies that children’s value can be measured in beans, apples or any other consumer product. This helps prepare the audience for Swift 's proposal that children should be eaten. Later, he quantifies Children by giving them a dollar amount: children “will not yield above three Pounds, or three Pounds and half a Crown at most on Exchange” (Swift, 7). This further prepares the audience for upcoming proposal because the quote suggests that human consumption holds financial benefits. When Swift finally makes his proposal to eat children, he lowers the value of human life by comparing their worth to that of “Sheep, black Cattle, [and] Swine” (Swift, 10). As the essay progresses, Swift continues to devalue children, and although these devaluations explicitly support the author’s proposal, they are mainly used to highlight the living conditions in Ireland. For instance, Swift calculated the number of poor families in order to
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879 Words | 4 PagesIn fact, he refers to “A very worthy Person, a true Lover of his Country, and whose Virtues I highly esteem, was lately pleased, in discoursing on this matter, to offer a refinement upon my Scheme”(17). As a result, Swift shows that even the most patriotic person to both Ireland and Britain (since Ireland was under British control at the time) realizes that within this current situation of poverty, this proposal is a solution and can be acted out in many different
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983 Words | 4 PagesMohammed Ismail AP Language Composition Lyons, William December 9, 2014 Rhetorical Devices Used in Jonathan Swifts Modest Proposal The essay Modest Proposal, written by Jonathan Swift perhaps known better for his novel Gulliver’s travels wrote this piece, because during his time he addressed solutions to many contemporary social issues by writing them on pamphlets. Swift’s main purpose in writing this essay is to avert children from being less of a problem to their parents and the public. The author tries not addressing his subject directly, children, instead Swift introduces the concept of a market, livestock, breeders, etc., to address the overcrowding and poverty stricken children in Dublin, Ireland.
Rhetorical Analysis Essay: A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift
576 Words | 3 PagesRhetorical Analysis Essay: A Modest Proposal Dr. Jonathan Swift places himself as a villain who is willing to do evil deeds to answer hard questions. What pushes Swift to write the essay “A Modest Proposal” is Ireland's economic and social problems. In this satirical essay Swift highlights the problems in Ireland and gives a sarcastic solution to make people feel guilt. Swift’s use of dehumanizing language is used to make the reader oppose Swift’s modest proposal.
Imagery In Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal
947 Words | 4 PagesHowever, the proposal seemed so heart-wrenching and far-fetched, it repulsed the audience by his description of when and what age to harvest the children as if he really believed his proposal was the solution. The way he described the women and children as beggars on the street in the beginning was emotionally difficult to read because, he gave the reader a vivid mental image. One part showed great imagery as he discussed how the children could be “stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled” (Swift 2), which the reader could now picture by him using terms people use when cooking animals. This piece of imagery shown indicates that the Irish government was treating its lower class no better than animals. Another strong image is created when he suggests using the children’s skin to make lady’s gloves and men’s summer boots, which is terrible and gruesome to even think about.
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1163 Words | 5 PagesJonathan Swift uses rhetorical devices, logical, ethical, as well as emotional appeals to highlight the difference between Swift’s satirical attitude and the narrator’s serious attitude concerning poverty and starvation. These various articles and different exerts from “A Modest Proposal” show the misleading content of the proposal in order to save Ireland and help them become a free country
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1413 Words | 6 Pages1729, a Papist infected Ireland was being devoured by the taxes that the British placed on them. The taxes were turning into what once was a glorious place into ruins. Jonathan Swift, an Englishman and Irish sympathizer, realized that someone had to do something to wake up the British. This lead to the creation of A Modest Proposal, a pamphlet heavy with irony and juvenalian satire, which was how Jonathan Swift planned on compelling the British to do something about the poor situation in Ireland. His use of rhetorical devices gets his point across in an effective and powerful way.
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805 Words | 4 PagesAt the time when Swift’s proposal was made, Britain’s dictatorial reign in Ireland had left the nation in poverty and disarray. Criticising a nation was much easier to do in a joking tone or be harder to read rather than direct and upfront. Swift wanted to discuss these issues and found by writing in satire he could have the readers’ attention in way that a seriously written piece could not reach. Satire is present when Swift convinces the audience that he is an empathetic individual introducing the proposal with a sophisticated and compassionate manner beginning in the sentence, "I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection (1)," luring the reader into a sense of false trust as he begins the descriptions of the poor in Ireland. The reader is led to believe at first that this is a serious essay however it is not until deep into the proposal the reader can see how Swift uses satire to propose his thoughts found in the sentence, “a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled;” continuing on that, “no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust (1).”
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867 Words | 4 PagesThe title alone is very ironic since it uses the word “modest” as if eating children is the most natural way to fix the problem. Another ironic piece of the proposal is when right before he proposes his thoughts of eating the children, he pronounces “I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.” By way of explanation, he is saying no one should be against the proposal, which is ironic considering what his true feelings toward the proposal actually are. One of the most compelling evidence of irony is when he states, “. . . it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas! too frequent among us, sacrificing the poor innocent babes . . .”
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620 Words | 3 PagesIn the satirical short story, “A Modest Proposal,” Jonathan Swift depicts the immoral treatment of the Irish by the imperial power, Britain. The 18th century brought great frustrations to Ireland in that the people were being oppressed by imperialism, which led to poverty and hunger. Swift satirically proposes a solution for Ireland’s problems by using a variety of rhetorical techniques: twisted humor, irony, and metaphor. Swift suggests that the only way to save Ireland from overpopulation and poverty is to kill the children of the poor families and serve them to the nobility of Ireland. Swift goes so far as to think of recipes and ways to make the skin into gloves and handbags.
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1085 Words | 5 PagesJonathan Swift is an enlightenment thinker that uses satire in his writings to bring awareness to the political power and mistreatment of the people of Ireland, ‘‘he was angry or in a fit of despair over Ireland 's economic condition’’(DeGategno). Swift uses satire throughout his proposal, by suggesting to the people of Ireland that they should harvest the little children of the poor. Swift stated that by making ‘‘Them Beneficial to the Public", Ireland would be in a better circumstance. Swift proposed that the poor children 's guardians should give birth to however many number of children as would be possible and offer them for sustenance. Instead of Swift addressing the issue straightforward, Swift used Satire ¬¬¬¬which employs irony sayings- one thing while meaning its opposite—in order to present an argument.
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Critical Analysis Of Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal
1083 Words | 5 PagesCritical 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).
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