One major economic issue is the rising ate of unemployment. This has forced society into a time filled with burden and stress. Unemployment forces struggling families to figure out how to feed their children with limited to no resources. This burden has caused a rise in the number of children participating in the breakfast and lunch program. The increase in participation has gone up by about 84% for free and reduced lunches alone.
“A Modest Proposal,” by Jonathan Swift begins by highlighting the sad fate of poverty-stricken Irish people who struggle and suffer to just put food in their children’s mouths. However, the author comes up with a solution to the problem. He says that since so many of the poor people produce too many children, they can use those children as a way to solve their problems. He says that they simply sell the children. He goes on to say that the children themselves will be sold to be cooked and eaten.
The text also gives examples on how the upper class used, “The poorer tenants [who had] something valuable of their own which by law, [was] liable to distress and [to] help to pay their landlord’s rent, their corn and cattle being already seized, and money unknown” (2). The Irish children were used as a commodity; in this case by selling their children to their landlords as food. This approach is still present in the world today and how dominant countries like the United States can buyout other countries for their own benefit. Given such evidence, the economic and social struggles of the lower class can undoubtedly be seen in most parts of the essay. Not only is the Marxist theory fundamental, the reader-response criticism is also essential to the text.
John Swift’s argument is extremely effective because there is an ongoing problem of women and children begging on the streets of Ireland. These’s mothers “are forced to employ all their time panhandling” (Swift), for food because their families are too poor to keep them fed and clothed. The Author immediately address’ the dreadful living situations in Ireland as well as the poor economy and comes up with “A Modest Proposal” in a very unconventional way, he is trying to open the City of Ireland’s eyes, if nothing changes, everything will stay the same. The Author proposes that the poverty problem in Ireland can be fixed by selling the children of the poor be sold as food to the wealthy. Swift had this figures down to a science, he wanted to use young infants as food and make their skin as clothing.
Children from poor families could be sold into a meat market at the age of one, which would decrease overpopulation and unemployment, sparing families the expense of child-bearing while providing them with a little extra income, improving dining of the wealthy, and contributing to the overall economy. Raising children for food will give the Irish economy a boost. These kids are delicacies, and delicacies can be expensive. The culinary experience will make Ireland a hot spot for tourists. He suggests some recipes for preparing this delicious new meat, and he feels sure that top cooks will be able to generate more.
It is very easy for us to look at someone who is impoverished and assume that they are to be blamed for their own poverty. That is not always the case. Millions of Americans are living in poverty. Some are ill, some are unemployed, and some people have devoted too much of their time attempting to better society, as opposed to bettering their own life. We live in a very ethnocentric society, meaning that we look down upon those of a different culture and tend to assume the worst of them, (Leeder, In Class 1/16/13).
Child poverty, in the UK is on the rise. Families are struggling to achieve basic human needs, and, as a result, their children are suffering the consequences. Poor nutrition, and living conditions are affected. There are currently 3.6 million children living in poverty in the UK, 1.6 million of these children, are living in severe poverty. (Barnardos, 2013).
Tiffany Le For: Ms. Andreacchi ENG4U0-B September 26th, 2011 A Modest Proposal: An Essay About an Essay Jonathon Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” is one of the most renowned satire essays in the world. In 1729, Ireland suffered economically. At the time, English landlords charged the rent so high, that Irish families could not afford it and were on the edge of starvation. Swift proposed that Irish couples should sell their babies as food to the more wealthy families. Swift believed selling infants as food would help Ireland economically.
First, it will decrease the number of dangerous Catholics. Second, it will give the poor some property. Third, it will increase the nation’s overall wealth, since people will not have to pay for the upkeep of the children. Fourth, the mothers will be free of the burden of bringing up children. Fifth, the new food will be welcomed in taverns and culinary circles.
A Modest Proposal Critical Analysis Sonja Martin November 14, 2012 ENG- 221 If you enjoy reading satiric and shockingly barbaric pieces of literature, 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 Public is a must read. The topic itself immediately draws readers in with the assumption that the proposal is of the most serious nature holding the interest of the less fortunate at heart. What the reader soon recognizes is that the author is actually extremely dissatisfied with abuse of economic and political power that the Irish and English governments project onto their less fortunate citizens. In expression of his outrage, and to bring attention to the country’s scandalous ways, he has constructed a “modest” proposal to expose the system for what it really is. As the proposal is read, the reality that this proposal is anything but “modest” is also wittingly exposed.