Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift

Reaction to the Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public A reader who is not familiar with the satiric talent of Jonathan Swift has to read the essay several times before having understood the message it contains. The author provides the detailed analysis of financial and nutritive benefits from selling 1-year old Irish babies as a gourmet item for rich authorities. This hyperbole makes a mockery at the Irish social structure and inhuman British policy towards Ireland in general. The pamphlet creates a shocking impression. At the first glance, it seems difficult to read about how an infant’s flesh would taste, seasoned with pepper and salt. After having found out the historic background of the story, the reader becomes even more horrified with the unfairness of income gap between the rich English landlords and poor Irish villains. This effect shows how successful was the author to focus the readers’ attention on the main issue.

He offers a sufficient amount of expedients to handle the crisis, like introduction of protectionist taxes, rejection of foreign luxury items, learning to love the country, limitation of pride and gaming, or establishing the spirit of fair dealing among the merchants (Swift, 228). However, all these measures are ironically shown as less beneficial than infants selling. As the majority of these measures could be employed without a participation of the British Parliament, the author blames not only English government, but also the Irish people for being unable to band together against the failing state of economy, starvation and overwhelming