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What Are The Similarities Between A Modest Proposal And Angela's Ashes

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The lack of food and the insurgence of World War II brought a state of melancholy for those begging out on the streets in rags from from every passenger in Ireland. In Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”, he makes a humble suggestion considering the benefits of his country’s indigence. On the other hand, Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, imposes a theoretical view of the poverty in McCourt’s eyes. All in all, both “A Modest Proposal” and Angela’s Ashes, portray similarities and differences in how they envisage pauperism in Ireland.
Swift and McCourt accommodates a negative feeling towards Ireland’s poverty through first person point of view. McCourt demonstrates the understanding of his situations, “ as [he looks] back on [his] childhood …show more content…

The diction and voice of both authors suggest that they want a change to happen in their country and to establish the audience in their shoes. In the two passages poverty is seen through McCourt’s memoir in chapter 1 paragraph 124, “We wait across the street. Mam lets me sit on the sidewalk with my back against the wall. She gives the twins their bottles of water and sugar but Malachy and I have to wait till she gets money from Dad and we can go to the Italian for tea and bread and eggs.” Both narrators hint the situations of families and what they go through everyday. All in all, “A Modest Proposal” is written in a sarcastic and ironic tone while Angela’s Ashes promotes a naive and humorous tone. As McCourt researches for words in the dictionary he becomes “too weary going from one word to another in [the] heavy dictionary which leads [him] on a wild goose chase from [word to word] all because the people who wrote the dictionary don't [want him] to know anything” (286). McCourt is young and does not comprehend the meanings of such things that word choice resembles the way he says one thing and means another. Although the poverty rummages around him, he acts in a sole manner and wants to know an abundance. This engaging feeling entwines how young he is and what his circumstances are. In a similar way Swift jokes on about how the poor children in Ireland …show more content…

Hunger and food are the main concerns in the two texts. In Ireland’s history, the turmoil over food during the twentieth century is the main cause of early deaths. In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift describes how mothers are “forced to employ all the time in stroling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country, to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to Barbadoes,” (lines 6-9). The lack of food creates depression for families who in turn fight for their country to sustain nutrients for themselves or turn into thieves. In every chapter of Angela’s Ashes, McCourt mentions his desires for food.In Limerick he watches longingly as the teacher skins an apple, his mouth salivating for the peeling, the part many throw away. During school hours, the students and McCourt inspect egoistically for raisins in their buns. On another account, McCourt becomes friends with other boys he dislikes in order to be welcomed home to receive food. The whole journal is rife with implications of food. Furthermore, the satirical "A Modest Proposal," suggests the hunger be resolved through the consumption of babies. In the nineteenth century, during the potato famine, Catholics who accept food from Protestants were credited as "soupers,"

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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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