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A brief introduction of Jonathan Swift’s
Gulliver's travels and english society
Introduction of jonathan swift
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He challenged the status quo by saying that selling the kids into slavery, not killing them when they are in the womb, and the benefits of eating the children and how it would help both families and the economy. The first way that Swift challenges the status quo is that he says that they should sell their children into slavery to save their parents from having to deal with them and pay for them. He says that by selling the kids into slavery it would take the burden off the parents, after the first year. Swift says, “a child just dropped from
Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” examines the proposal of consuming human flesh in order to solve the dilemma of the Potato Famine, in which drought was exacerbated by crop failures, and this tribulation of the Irish was largely snubbed by English landowners. His ironic persona (speaker), is one of confidence, reason, and worth. In addition, this persona presents a multitude of rhetorical strategies to prepare the audience for this overly deranged proposal, ranging from juxtapositions, to using emotion, reason, and credibility, to persuade the reader. Therefore, the ironic persona in “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift illustrates a wide assortment of rhetorical devices to convey the solution to the Potato Famine, and more broadly, Swift intended this ironic platform to serve as an expository of the avarice of landowners and their gain for self-interest.
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
Mohammed 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.
Through the use of satire, rhetorical tropes and political implications, Swift is able to create a convincing proposal to persuade his audience to his idea of a perfect world. This can be exhibited through the first few sentences where Swift uses melodramatic phrases through describing how he has “been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts” (Swift)
He also includes imagery in A Modest Proposal. Swifts exaggerated imagery leaves a strong impact on the reader. In using descriptions like, “...carcass of a good fat child...” (93), he engraves a horrifying image on a baby on a platter in the minds of the reader. The strong uses of imagery throughout the essay bring his point across. A third rhetorical device that this essay is thick with is irony.
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
Swift is satirizing Americans by saying that is where his narrator gets the idea from. It makes it seem like Americans have been doing these monstrous acts and are okay with it. Swift and his narrator do share some beliefs, for example the narrator states, “For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen the number of Papists, with whom we are yearly over-run, being the principal breeders of the nation, as well as our most dangerous enemies” (8). Swift and his narrator both agree here with their feelings towards the Papists, whom they satirize due to their disbelief in birth control. This proves that Swift is not just trying to call for reform from the English, but to call for reform from his country.
Dr. Jonathan 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. In order to understand the nature of Swift’s proposal,
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.”
When it came to Ethos, Swift was not quite as persuasive as he could have been. He does have a background when it comes to writing about corrupt governments in tales such as “Gulliver’s Travels.” The way Swift wrote this essay, however, makes it feel slightly less objective. Even when he is writing from the point of a wealthier Irishman, his overall tone shows a large amount of contempt towards the higher economic classes. Instead of allowing the readers to read alternative arguments on this subject, he focused strictly on his own opinion.
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
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
“A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people”. This quote is perfect for this novel because Gulliver’s Travels judges the British society of the particular time period through the heart and soul of the main character Gulliver. Gulliver’s Travels makes many annotations on British society of their particular time period. As Gulliver visits different islands at the time he discovers many different societies and their people. All the societies that Gulliver discovers are used as a comparison to British society of the time period throughout the novel.
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
