Rhetorical Analysis Of A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift

“How to turn your financial burdens into cash cows!” ;The sarcastic and rhetorical moral behind “A Modest Proposal” written by Jonathan Swift. When Swift wrote this article he was hoping to shift the attention of Ireland’s people and politicians to their failing economy and destitute civilians. In the beginning of the article Swift mentions how sad in yet common it is to see a woman begging for money with 4-6 small children in rags following behind her. The women are unavailable to work as they have to care for and watch over the children, These children grow up to leave the country for better opportunities at success elsewhere, which gives more opportunity for other countries like Spain to come in and dominate Irish land. To prevent this

Pulling at the heartstrings of the audience, Swift describes a poor mother begging for some money to feed her children. The women who are not born into rich families, are not married, or are married to poor men are unavailable to work as they have to care for and watch over the children, resulting in an even more poor family unit. The father (if the father is present) has to provide for not only himself but also for his wife, and multitude of children. These children whose parents are poor grow up to inherit that poorness and either become thieves or leave the country for better opportunities at success elsewhere which detracts from the Irish natives and gives more opportunity for other countries like Spain to come in and dominate Irish land. To bring this thought into the people’s minds Swift proposes that the poor Irish rid themselves of their children as a burden and turn them into cash-cows by selling them as food and hide for a profit and to strengthen the economy. Swift tries to influence the audience into better behaviors by letting them know that from an outsider’s perspective they seem as though they don’t bond as a family are likely to turn to primitive behavior like savages. Swift then shows compassion for the female and young homeless people of Ireland by describing their poverty in detail and calling it a

Swift didn’t try to solve these problems with his satire but instead he attempted to show the people of Ireland that this was metaphorically what the government was doing to them. The English government didn’t care the slightest bit about children who are poor, grow up to be poorer, end up having to leave Ireland, and ultimately live unhappy lives as long as the English government was making money, the English government didn’t care. With the Irish government allowing the English to do such horrible things to the people and not show any pity or even try to fix the problem and with Swift’s background as a first generation Irish child born to English parents it is obvious that Swift was disgusted with Ireland’s cold system run by the motherland England that isn’t like a mother at all. Around this time other writers tried to explain this to the people as well but their attempts went unnoticed by the masses, this is why Swift decided that maybe Ireland didn’t need to wake up to smell the coffee, but get the coffee thrown in their face. Swift gained the public’s attention with his sarcastic proposal and made it seem as close to home as possible by including statistics and even going as far as discussing marketing ideas, business techniques, the butchers techniques on the meat, and the value of the baby body. By