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Rhetorical Analysis Of A Modest Proposal

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Ben Albizzatti Prof. Genetti Comp 1 4th October 2016 The Key to Ending World Hunger? Will we ever find the cure to world hunger? Jonathan Swift seems very confident he has in his proposal. 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. At the time “A Modest Proposal” was …show more content…

Instead of begging for scraps Swift proposes that everyone is capable of making a modest living by simply breeding babies to be eaten. Killing two birds with one stone in a sense. By eating children, the number homeless people roaming the streets diminishes and at the same time the food shortage is also being solved. Swift uses logos thought his proposal to get his insane point across. logos is defined as an account, or a clear and logical explanation, or an argument. As crazy as it may sound, Swift gives logical reasoning to his madness by going into great detail about how to actually eat …show more content…

The name it’s self, “A Modest Proposal” is satire . If you though Swift was serious with his proposal, you are not the first. I thought the same too. Satire is “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity and vices, particularly in the context of politics.” I believe that without satire, Swift would not have gotten the response that he did. 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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The title itself is satirical, as "A Modest Proposal" suggests a reasonable solution to a problem, but the content of the proposal is far from reasonable. Swift uses hyperbole and irony to mock the idea that the poor should sell their children as food, stating "A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food" (paragraph 9). He chastises the English landlords and politicians who exploit the Irish people, stating "I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this proposal unless it should be urged, that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom" (paragraph 28). Swift also challenges the Irish people to take action and help themselves, stating "who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children" (paragraph 22). Another example of satire in A Modest Proposal is when Swift sarcastically suggests that the sale of babies for food could be a solution to the problem of overpopulation: "I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couples whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couples who are able to maintain their own children...

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