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Discuss the use of irony in the modest proposal by jonathan swift
Analyze the modest proposal by jonathan swift
Rhetorical devices used by jonathan swift in a modest proposal
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Overall, A Modest Proposal by Johnathon Swift is a work of satire which is created through many literary tools such as exaggeration, imagery, irony, and appeals to logos, pathos, and ethos. By using these methods Swift was able to make cannibalism both humorous and realistic, ultimately influencing the audience of wealthy landowners to see the real problem of poverty in Ireland and force a sense of guilt which he hopes will encourage them to find a more realistic solution and help others. Swift presents extreme ideas in order to shock his audience, uses animal imagery to make the poor babies seem less than human, and implements lots of irony. The piece also appeals to logic, authority, and emotion. While we, the present day audience, are supposed to find his work funny and ridiculous when he first wrote it, the piece was political and his goal was to be so outrageous it seemed real and would eventually cause change.
1729, 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.
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 using their skins as a fashion accessory; however, ultimately this proposal was not his true goal. Jonathan Swift skillfully used different styles of writing, such as imagery and irony, to show why the
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
Ephesus or which had general currency in the larger imperial world. We can experience the rituals, social practices and conventions, institutions, societal structure, personal, and forth. That is, for this study the text of culture and history are centered on but not confined to imperial Ephesus. Such inter-textual study is concerned with how one text the John’s gospel participates within this larger context as it intersects with other imperial text.
The second rhetorical operation discussed in this study is reversal. It “combines elements that are mirror images of one another in an expression” (McQuarrie and Mick, 1996: 432). What means by mirror image here is that it repeats the original sentence but in reverse structure. The rhetorical operation of reversal can be either semantic (antithesis) or syntactic (antimetabole).
Swift’s satire consisted of many “modest theories.” For example, you may have heard people talk about overpopulation. You may have your own theories about it, but what about eating children? In this instance, Jonathan Swift used his form of humor, also known as satire, to get his point across, in which wrote a pamphlet called “A Modest Proposal,” a mockery for the ideas of how to deal with overpopulation. “Satire is a technique employed by writers to
“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, weather stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled…”(Swift 358) Swift
From the time that a child is born to the age of one, Jonathan Swift elaborates in great detail how many different ways they can be prepared as a meal. He also expresses that after the age of one, a child is no longer prime to be consumed as a meal, but instead insists that all of the underprivileged children from two years of age and upward be maintained at a price to develop the overall increase of the economy. Swift then goes on to explain how the wealthier population may want a more particular tenderness of meat. As stated by Jonathan Swift, a child of twelve to fourteen years of age would not be good for this due to a male being too lean of meat.
"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift is a satire that proposes an ironic solution to Ireland 's suffering problem with poverty and overcrowding. Swift proposes the solution of selling children to wealthy families or taverns to be cooked and served. This unrealistic solution shows how absurd of an idea was needed to get the attention of the government. The main purpose of writing his satire was to bring attention to the horrendous conditions that poverty ridden families were suffering from in Ireland during the 1700s.
"A Modest Proposal" by Johnathan Swift is a fascinating display of satire and irony. Mr. Swift uses satire to display his disagreement with England's treatment toward the Irish and how he believes the king views the People of Ireland. At the time, England treatment of the Irish was less than favorable. The common people were malnourished and living in poverty, while the rich relished in their opulence. Jonathan Swift showed his disapproval of this by writing this wonderfully ironic piece of work.
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.
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.
In 1729, Jonathan Swift wrote possibly the world’s most ironic essay entitled, A Modest Proposal. Swift implies that poverty in Ireland can best be resolved by selling the children of the poor as food for the wealthy. Swift argues that children could be sold into a meat market as early as the age of one, which provides income to poor families because it saves them the costs of nurturing so many children. Throughout his entire essay, Jonathan Swift utilizes irony and satire to convey his sardonic arguments.
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).
