Rhetorical Devices In A Modest Proposal

"A Modest Proposal" is one of the most famous works by Irish satirist, Jonathan Swift. Swift wrote and published the text in 1729, for the English people. At this time, England had purchased most of the fruitful land in Ireland, forcing the Irish to share the little land left and live in poverty. The British saw these people as savage and unruly, resulting in their wanting to tame the Irish. James Tully, a scholar, describes this as an imperialist desire. In this proposal, Swift satirically suggests eating the babies of the poor in Ireland as a solution to the growing numbers of vagrants and beggars. To persuade his readers, Swift writes with logos, the rhetorical use of logical appeal. Throughout the document, Swift uses credentials and citations

Within the document, there are two Swift. The Swift attempting to persuade the audience is the Proposer; the Swift that writes the document is the real Swift, called Swift. While discussing his friend’s idea of eating teenage boys and girls, instead of Venice, the Proposer denies this proposal saying “to censure such a practice… as a little bordering upon cruelty” (Swift). Because the Proposer, someone encouraging the practice of eating babies, suggests that the idea of eating teenagers and young children could be considered immoral, then his own proposal could be considered immoral. He continues on the next line "I confess, hath always been with me the strongest objection against many project" (Swift). Swift says that he always objects strongly to ideas that could be considered cruel, which is what his idea would be considered. This makes the reader question his validity if he questions other's ideas that could be considered cruel, but not his own. As seen later in the document, the only disagreement that the Proposer can muster is the reduce in population. While the first quote is the proposer speaking, this line is the real Swift. Here, Swift wants the reader to question the proposal and to see the cruelty of eating the babies of the poor in Ireland. Once the readers see this, they might begin to realize their own cruelty in taking the land of the Irish and wanting to civilize them through imperialism. At the end of the document, Swift impersonates the Proposer, suggesting his own solutions to ending the poverty in Ireland, under a façade of rebuking these solutions in place of the