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Rhetorical Devices In A Modest Proposal

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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. He continues to state that the overwhelming number of children is one of the root issues of the state of the kingdom. When …show more content…

And all the information the American gives on how to prepare a child to eat helps hold up the credibility of what Swift has to say. Irish man Swift was not afraid to take a couple of jabs at the greedy English rule. “I grant this food [children] will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.” Swift is utilizing a metaphor here, he means that the English landlords take so much money from the Irish peasants that they have figuratively “devoured” the parents already. He more than blames the English for a lot of Ireland’s problems and it shows through his ironic and humorous …show more content…

He does this to keep the genre a satire if he were to switch to considering these more reasonable options the force and flow of his essay would be lost. As Swift has been offering a satirical and outrageous proposal he is basically stating that the other expedients, like “taxing,” are dumb and killing the poor would be of better use. It is obvious to the reader that killing people is not the best option so by brushing off these other proposals he actually draws attention to

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Swift makes extensive use of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos within the first eight paragraphs to create a strong initial argument that captures the audience’s attention and provide assurance that the information presented is viable. Swift starts with an appeal to Pathos by describing the state of Ireland: “the Streets, the Roads, and Cabin-Doors, crowded with Beggars of the female Sex, followed by three, four, or six Children, all in Rags, and importuning every Passenger for an Alms” (Swift, 1). The description of Ireland leaves a gloomy effect on the audience, as they are met with a somber tone set forth by a description on how thousands of people are affected by the poverty in Ireland. Swift continues this appeal to Pathos by describing the state of families within this poverty: “this prodigious number of Children, in the Arms, or on the Backs, or at the heels of their Mothers, and frequently of their Fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the Kingdom, a very great additional grievance” (Swift, 2). This description of the melancholy state of Ireland creates an emotional appeal because, the thought of having mass amounts of children being forced to cling to their Mothers and Fathers in a desperate struggle for survival, is a morose image.

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Swift, as the author, clearly does not believe in this idea, and that is evident through the speakers word choice. He states, “I shall now humbly propose my own thoughts...” (59), before stating his preposterous idea. The word humble is so beyond ironic due to the level of insanity that the proposal

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1332 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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947 Words | 4 Pages

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 using their skins as a fashion accessory; however, ultimately this proposal was not his true goal. Jonathan Swift skillfully used different styles of writing, such as imagery and irony, to show why the

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491 Words | 2 Pages

1. In the satirical essay, A Modest Proposal (1729), Jonathan Swift implies that Ireland is overpopulated because the Catholic population is reproducing too much children and therefore by using the children as a marketable strategy it would increase Ireland’s economy. The author supports this by stating that since the kids are delicacies and delicacies don’t come cheaply, not only will the parents make a good profit out of their young ones but this will also make Ireland a hot spot for tourists. The author’s purpose is to satirically argue that Ireland’s children can be raised as food for the wealthy in order to show how the English are treating the Irish so badly that they are literally cannibalizing the Irish people.

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1523 Words | 7 Pages

His titular so-called “modest proposal” is in fact cannibalism, namely that the Irish economy can grow within all social sectors discussed above by means of eating “infants’ flesh” (2433), or bringing it “to the market” (2435). The satirical technique employed here are juxtaposition and hyperbole, as the title pronouncing the proposal propounded in the piece as “Modest”, as well as Swift’s own proclamation regarding his “humble” proposal that he hopes, naturally, “will not be liable to the least objection” (2432), is juxtaposed next to the utter irrationality of the absurd nature of the actual hyperbolic proposal. The tonal fashion in which he segues from his sarcastic yet also human and poignant lamentation of his country’s “melancholy” state (2431) and his seeming righteous indignation for some Irish mother’s “savage and inhuman” resort to murder their “poor innocent” “bastard children” through abortion due to their inability to support them in their indigence (2431), into stylistically casually stating that “a young healthy child” is “at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food” (2432), is of course jarringly irrational and ironic. This preposterous proposal is of course utilized by Swift as a means to circuitously draw the reader’s attention to the sole rational proposal for Ireland’s economic plight, which is to cure “the expensiveness” of the Irish’s “pride, vanity, idleness”, to teach the English landlords “to have at least one degree of mercy toward their tenants”, and to use products only of domestic “growth and manufacture” (2436). Swift emphatically repeats that he will tolerate “no man talk to me [him] of other expedients” (2435, 2436), such as the one above, which he indirectly characterizes as being “vain, idle, visionary thoughts”, while referring to his own proposed cannibalism as

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576 Words | 3 Pages

Rhetorical Analysis Essay: A Modest Proposal Dr. Jonathan Swift places himself as a villain who is willing to do evil deeds to answer hard questions. What pushes Swift to write the essay “A Modest Proposal” is Ireland's economic and social problems. In this satirical essay Swift highlights the problems in Ireland and gives a sarcastic solution to make people feel guilt. Swift’s use of dehumanizing language is used to make the reader oppose Swift’s modest proposal.

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648 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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701 Words | 3 Pages

Jonathan Swift, was a famous satirist and author of “Gulliver's Travels” who devoted most of his writing discussing the struggle between Ireland and England. Swift became famous in Ireland in the 1700’s for his depiction of the English government in a time where Ireland and England were not particularly friendly. In the essay “A Modest Proposal”, one of Swift’s more extreme, the idea of the Irish eating their children to survive is presented with a plainly satirical tone. Since the content of the essay is so absurd, it allows for Swift to hold an overly serious tone which adds to the hilarity of this piece. The essay builds a unique type of argument by using satire and allegory to establish tone and pathos, diction paired with tone to establish a relationship with his intended audience and comedy to discredit the people he is mocking and elevate his own

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834 Words | 4 Pages

“I think the next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it. ”-Frank A. Clark (Psychology Today). A man named Jonathan Swift saw many problems in his government and society. He realized it needed to be fixed. Swift’s strong beliefs pushed him to write satire to try and help Ireland.

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851 Words | 4 Pages

Jonathan Swift’s essay “A Modest Proposal” was first published as a pamphlet in 1729. The piece is clearly written in essay form having an introduction of the proposal, presentation of the proposal, its explanation followed by the arguments supporting the idea and convincing the readers of its usefulness. The words beneath the title, “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” (1729, Swift) seems to prepare the reader for a serious argument where the author is going to convince us to agree with him. “A Modest Proposal” is an essay with a proposition. In clear, simple words, the writer offers the idea of cannibalism as the solution to the problems of

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716 Words | 3 Pages

He wrote it as a joke and as a mockery of what Ireland has become while showing his disdain towards the higher-class during this period. Swifts proposal to these social issues, as stated, is for the parents of a marginalized family to be allowed to sell their children for a certain amount of money to be consumed by the rich, thereby solving the predicaments. He [Swift] is a very nationalistic man that vies for Ireland to be a better country even by criticizing his fellow Irishmen. Swift begins the proposal, “A 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 Publick”, or most commonly referred to as “A Modest Proposal”, by giving a brief background of the current state of Ireland, specifically Dublin. The background not only shows the different problems Ireland is facing, but as well as how it affects the common folk.

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821 Words | 4 Pages

Swift 's pamphlet parodies the style and method of these, and the cruel irony of his own method of curing a problem shows his personal attitude at the attempts of all this paper journalists to achieve any real progress by writing their useless pamphlets. Firstly, the main target of satire Swift saw in those reformers who treat people as objects, thereby equating them to the simple goods. Swift was especially insulted by projects that tried to fix population and labor issues with a simple cure-all solution. Swift satire draws not only and not so much against this kind of reformers, but against the overall situation in Ireland, where no one as he thought wanted to spend truly effective measures into practice.

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Swift surfaces these issues in order to promote helping the poor and making them become beneficial members of society. The author uses a satirical frame to address public issues, thus he mostly is directing his essay towards the general public in Ireland, the victim, and England, the culprit. 2. When one considers the satirical frame of “A Modest Proposal,” Swift’s persona implicitly mimics an individual who is serious and knowledgeable on the burdens Ireland is undertaking

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867 Words | 4 Pages

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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