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Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift

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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. …show more content…

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

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He gives a more specific opinion on poor children and their place in society (Swift, a Modest Proposal, 1729). Purpose: This document is pointed to the high society, like kings and queens, because they are not doing anything to help the underprivileged individuals. Argument: This article is written as an opinionative form written by a philosopher. Presupposition: Swift states,”

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My Majesty, King George II, I am writing to you to explain Mr. Swift 's zealous and also absurd proposal on what we shall do with the young children of Ireland. In Mr. Swift 's "Modest Proposal", he suggests turning the children of Ireland into "sound and useful members of the Commonwealth". The main idea here is to turn the children into livestock, being used for sale and consumption. According to him, this solution benefits Irish society by providing a good source of nutrients to the commonwealth, as well as a reliable income for poorer families in Ireland.

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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.

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Concluding with the statement that the proposal is no use to him because he lacks the age appropriate children to eat. Not only did he write about this subject but also thought about how it would apply to his life. *It brought Ireland to the forefront of the public news in Britain, when something had to be done about the famine. This shocking way brought the attention to everyone, not just the throne and landlords.

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In 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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Popular essayist and satirist, Jonathan Swift, in his pamphlet, “A Modest Proposal,” (which at first was anonymously published) is proposing a solution to end the famine in Ireland. He adopts a sarcastic and straightforward tone in order to explain his outrageous proposal to the Irish public. Swift’s purpose is to bring to light the terrible situation of the Irish people and to propose a way to fix it. In this pamphlet, he proposes to end the famine by outrageously suggesting eating and selling Irish children. Swift begins his pamphlet by describing the sad and poor Irish streets with mothers and child beggars in rags.

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703 Words | 3 Pages

A modest Proposal is a satirical writing that goes over the mind set of the rich towards the poor starving children in Ireland at the time. Jonathan Swift uses a number of rhetorical strategies while he tries to highlight insane ideas in his proposal. Swift uses metaphors, repetition and logical fallacies as well as humor, sarcasm and satire tone to bring about some ridiculous ideas to fix Ireland. In order to really understand what works and what doesn’t, one must truly understand the background behind Swifts idea.

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However, 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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In “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift informs the reader that a famine is happening in Ireland and the rich are turning a blind eye to the starving poor. Swift claims that the best way to fix the problem of overpopulation and beggars on the street is to eat the poor children. John Swift is a Protestant clergyman, so he sees what these people are going through every day due to church. Yet, he is a member of the ruling class, meaning he has never lived through these horrible conditions the families are. Since he does see these people, he has a good idea of what is going on in their lives making him a credible person on the subject of the living conditions in 1729 when he wrote “A Modest Proposal.”

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Luckily, Swift found a way to put these children to good use: raise them as food for the wealthy citizens (Shmoop Editorial Team). Swift points out that it may be easier for the mother if they had money instead of an obnoxious child. Swift said that people’s only suggestion would be that less people would occupy Ireland. He even stated that he of course would have no bias because his children were too old to gain prophet for eating. The best part, Swift points out, is that the children being sold will give the economy a boost.

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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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The prince and the pauper, written by Mark twain is a tale about two boy who trade clothes one afternoon but doing so trade lives too. After many different adventures they resume their positions one a prince about to become a king and the other one a beggar and a thief that is abused and not wanted. The poor boy, Tom Canty lives in london and he is a beggar and a thief if he does not bring home money his dad beats him and he get punished. The prince, Edward tudor, is a price that is about to become king, they are both 15 and they were born on the same day.

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"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.

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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.

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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).

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