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Analysis Of A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift

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“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.”-Jonathan Swift. This meaningful quote shows how people clearly see each other’s flaws like glass, but do not see their own faults. Swift, well-known satirist was Born on November 30, 1667. He grew up fatherless, but he was in the care of his uncle. After Some time, he became the dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. Interestingly, the majority of his writings were published under pseudonyms. His most noticeable work was A Modest Proposal, where Swift ridiculed the British for negatively affecting Ireland's commerce. Despite his numerous experiences, Jonathan Swift’s political life as part of the Tories in London was the catalyst for his future endeavors.
Jonathan Swift was born into a poor family that included his sister, Jane, and mother, Abigail. His mom left the children to the relatives. Afterward, Swift joined Kilkenny Grammar School with the help of his uncle, Godwin Swift. He received a B.A at Trinity College, M.A from Oxford, and D.D from Dublin University. He worked as a secretary under the revered English minister, Sir William …show more content…

This religious satire defends Christianity against contemporary assaults such as freethinkers, deists, and atheists by using irony to defend Christianity. He suggested hilarious and insulting reasons to keep Christianity. For instance, to keep "great wits" in check and from attacking other "dignities" like the Government and Ministries. Moreover, when Christianity is abolished, people will have a free Sunday. He made fun of irreligious people by making them sound pointless by making them inquire about everything. Shockingly, he wrote words like “whoring” and “cheating” would not exist because people are pure no matter what they did. While it may seem absurd, Swift satirized Christianity in order to satirized society and soon the

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Swift shapes the text in a satiric way to portray to his audience his point of view on the topic at hand, and with the use of sarcasm Jonathan Swift mocks upper-class people who are affected by the overcrowding and poverty in Dublin. The usage of a satiric tone and sarcasm help Swift develop solutions to contemporary social problems that will work. In the “Modest Proposal”, written by Jonathan Swift, diction is a key rhetorical device in this piece, because of the way Swift portrays his thoughts through satire. Diction is the style of speaking or writing determined by the choice of words by a speaker by or a writer, Swift’s audience sees his diction as inhumane because of the way he proposes solutions to the world’s problems, such as in paragraph twenty one where he

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Within the document, there are two Swift. The Swift attempting to persuade the audience is the Proposer; the Swift that writes the document is the real Swift, called Swift. While discussing his friend’s idea of eating teenage boys and girls, instead of Venice, the Proposer denies this proposal saying “to censure such a practice… as a little bordering upon cruelty” (Swift). Because the Proposer, someone encouraging the practice of eating babies, suggests that the idea of eating teenagers and young children could be considered immoral, then his own proposal could be considered immoral. He continues on the next line "I confess, hath always been with me the strongest objection against many project" (Swift).

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Swift, as the author, clearly does not believe in this idea, and that is evident through the speakers word choice. He states, “I shall now humbly propose my own thoughts...” (59), before stating his preposterous idea. The word humble is so beyond ironic due to the level of insanity that the proposal

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During the time that “A modest proposal” was written, it was extremely hard to get the peoples attention and the only way Swift saw fit to get the peoples attention was to write a satirical parody. Even though Swifts idea to improve the lives of the poor were quite unorthodox he got the people talking about actual ways to fix the problem at

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Swift uses many rhetorical devices, humor, and emotional appeals to appeal to the audience when writing “A Modest Proposal.” Swift says, “for we can neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we neither build houses, (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land…” (3). Swift uses a parallel structure as well as anaphora to highlight the logic that children cannot work until they are at least six years of age. Swift portrays the Roman Catholics as an example of humor, “there are more children born in Roman Catholic countries about nine months after Lent” (5). He finds this amusing because the Catholics may give up sex for Lent, so when Lent is over the men and women splurge and eventually make babies.

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For example on page 2 Swift says “so as to render them plump, and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends.” statements like this make Swift’s proposal even more outrageous. This is a sarcastic attempt by Swift to make the proposal look attractive, but his statement has an underlying meaning of making the idea look repulsive. Additionally on page 2 Swift states “That a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food.”

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Jonathan Swift has written many literature classics such as, “Gulliver’s Travels,” “A Modest Proposal,” and “A Tale of a Tub.” He was coined a major figure of English literature and “a satirist, cleric and political pamphleteer” (Jonathan Swift, 2012). Along with his most classical literature, Swift has written approximately 17 essays, tracts, pamphlets, periodicals , 34 poems, five personal writings, and five sermons or prayers. Jonathan Swift was born November 30, 1667 in Dublin, Ireland.

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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

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As an element within satire, Swift uses irony to further his tongue-in-cheek essay. In such cases, his examples are written in the opposite of what he means in ways that direct the true meaning (Ehrenpreis 309). The imagery and language Swift pens is intended to promote awareness of the impoverished and the public's duty to solve it, but in actuality, his pithy remarks show he does not care for the poor or even see them as human beings. His proposal suggests this because otherwise the speaker would not advocate selling children in poverty to be consumed by the

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“Over the populace, swift was the most absolute monarch that ever governed men and was regarded by people of every rank with veneration and esteem” (Bilson). “He had become known as a man with strong political and religious convictions with a talent for writing savage, even bitter satire” (Aykroyd 11). Dublin ordained him priest on January 13, 1695 (Hunting 4). He had even composed some poems for himself (The Victorian Web). The poems for himself were called “Swift sailed into his rest”, “Savage Indignation There”, “Cannot Lacerate His Breast”, “Imitate Him if You Dare”, “World-Desotted Travels”, and “He Served Human Libery” (The Victorian

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The Ancient Art of Corruption Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver's Travels: Part II. A Voyage to Brobdingnag implicitly reveals the corruption taking place in the dawn of the eighteenth century, almost ironically foreshadowing political occurrences taking place in today’s modern age, such as the privatization of prisons in America. Jonathan Swift grew up in the late seventeenth century. As Collin Wells pointed out, “Jonathan Swift is generally recognized as the English language’s most accomplished prose satirist. Born of an Anglo-Irish family in Dublin” (Wells), Swift acquired significant fame and respect throughout his life.

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623 Words | 3 Pages

What’s the difference between a baby and a peanut butter cup? The baby won’t stick to the roof of your mouth. Jonathon Swift was a satirist, essayist, pamphleteer, and cleric who became dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. In 1729 Swift wrote A Modest Proposal, a satirical essay, suggesting that by selling Irish children it might ease their economic troubles. The pamphlet mocked the heartless attitudes towards the poor.

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281 Words | 2 Pages

The satirical mastermind Jonathan swift was born in 1667 in Dublin, Ireland. With his style of writing Swift brought many controversial topics in society up for the general public to see. Swift was able to do this with one of his works “A Modest Proposal” which Swift wrote to bring the government, and the people in his society's attention to the poverty problem. Swift also wrote his satirical masterpiece “Gulliver’s Travels to bring many different problems within people and the government of society, which included the violent nature of countries and how people have lost the connection of how to properly use communication. Swift's father died before he Swift's mother gave birth to him.

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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

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1083 Words | 5 Pages

First, he presents a problem, along with facts and calculations. Like for example when Swift discusses the “prodigious number of children” that were causing an “great additional grievance” especially in the “present deplorable state of the of the kingdom” (Swift 1200). He reels the reader in by describing images of extreme wretchedness and utter hopelessness, then he employs the use of rationalism to play down the reader’s moral considerations. He successfully uses logic to get the audience to subconsciously lower their moral defenses and seriously consider his proposal. Jonathan Swift’s use of sarcastic irony confuses the reader as to the essays true purpose, effectively causing them to put down all guards so that they will have no safeguards when he aims his penetrative

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