Brief Interpretation: A Modest Proposal 2. A Modest Proposal is a persuasive, satirical piece. The main purpose of this article is to convince the reader to side with the idea of selling and cooking children in Ireland. During this time, Ireland was immersed in poverty, so the author ironically attempts to convince the reader that eating children will be a solution to the people of Ireland. This piece is an extended satire because obviously the author’s proposal is implausible and irrational.
Putting in his final comments about the Catholics, landlords, other Irish citizens unwilling to help. These two purposes diverge when Swift as a narrator becomes very cold and rational about his plan. He goes on to describe how the child would be nursed and eaten using facts, statistics, and progresses to making outrageous proposals and acting as if they are completely innocent which was truly not what he wished to implement. 2. If you define "the reader" as the government officials, then he was trying to get their attention so that they would do something about the problem.
Satire is a literary work in which the follies of its subject are attacked through irony, derision, or wit, usually to fulfill a corrective purpose. Those who satirize are called satirist’s. Satire is an art, and while making a point, it should do it in such a way that the reader doesn’t feel assaulted, or moralized. Swift does this by sarcastically proposing to the people that by selling the children of the poor and beggars to the wealthier families, as this will provide clothing, food, and will decrease the population of the kingdom. At this time in Ireland, there was extreme poverty and a gap between the poor and the rich, the tenements and the landlords.
Through descriptive language of the narrators proposal to end child poverty and starvation, the narrator is putting the reader into utter disgust and shock due to what appears to be an inhumane solution to nation wide problem. The effect of doing this is that Swift has created an antagonist in the perception of the reader making them not only disagree but disgusted with everything the narrator is proposing. Swift uses the element development of character to portray the narrators profound proposition to the reader. The British Elite are failing to withhold their responsibilities in Ireland causing child poverty and starvation of the Irish people. Swift uses development of character to show the development of not the narrator himself but the reader.
In the piece, A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift, he wants to change Ireland’s poor reputation caused by children from poor families. Children from poor families do not get enough food or clothing that they result to stealing or they sell themself to Barbadoes. To change that situation around, Swift proposed an idea. Instead of letting the children become “pain” to their families and growing up being a negative influence towards the world, you should sell them as food in return for 8 shillings or so. However, this piece is satire.
A Modest Proposal is a pamphlet that Jonathan Swift composed in objection to the cruel actions toward Catholics of Ireland by the English absentee landlords. As the proposal begins, it appears to be the solution to solve hunger, and poverty and overpopulation. The issue with overpopulation; It is too many poor peasants living on the streets. Swift suggest Homeless mothers “breed more children” then they can care for and turn to begging. He refers to these children as thieves or disloyal, as they would soon leave Dublin to fight for another country.Swift explains that "it is agreed by all parties" that the overpopulation of children is a problem that is "a very great additional grievance" to the current "deplorable state" of Ireland.
“The Most Dangerous Game,” by Richard Connell, and “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson both use suspense and shock value to portray their horrid story lines. These short stories are about individuals who have stopped following societies “rules.” They began to degrade human life like it has no such meaning and carry out things that would be looked down upon in the real world. While both General Zaroff and the Village take the lives of innocent people, General Zaroff does it for his own enjoyment and pleasure. The Village, in “The Lottery,” are forced to do this because of their traditions for heavy crops. Due to General Zaroff’s savage doings for satisfaction, he seems to have lost his humanity and de-valued human life far more than the Villagers and their customs did.
Persuading Everyone Jonathan Swift’s satire is effective in persuading readers to think critically about their society. In A Modest Proposal, he vents his mounting frustration about the incompetence of the English politicians, the hypocrisy and immorality of the wealthy, and the pitiful situation of the Irish beggars. Throughout the essay, his logical examples, structure, sarcasm and diction, and pathetic imagery combine to manipulate and entrap the reader into accepting the absurd solution of eating babies to assuage Irish penury. To begin A Modest Proposal, Swift exploits the reader’s capacity for pity. Swift’s vivid description of the condition of the poverty-stricken beggars immediately captures the reader’s attention.
Alexa Mijares Mrs. Pagani AP Composition 26 March 2012 Dear Mr. Smarmy, I understand your concern regarding Jonathon Swift’s A Modest Proposal and how outlandish and corrupt his proposition may be when not read in-between the lines. From the outside, it appears that Swift is some sort of child-eating monster with absolutely no morals whatsoever. Yet it must be understood that Swift is regarded as one of the world’s leading satirist and A Modest Proposal is merely a way to grab the reader’s attention to present the real issue at hand. Personally, I agree that although the way Swift presents his view in a rather harsh way, he makes valid points on how desperate the situation has become in Ireland. My position that A Modest Proposal is not despicable lies within the irony of the entire piece.
Jonathan Swift uses disturbing metaphors and irony to show his readers about the society during the time he lived and critique the attitude of the upper classes toward the poor. Swift’s main purpose in A Modest Proposal is to bring attention to the political, economic, and social problems which occur in Ireland under English colonization. Swift makes masterly use of verbal irony in his proposal to strengthen his argument, that the Irish deserve better treatment from England. For example, at the beginning of the proposal, Swift try to make the reader believe that it is a serious proposal by using some statistics of how many children are suffering and what the condition of the society is. However, Swift’s narrator suddenly introduces his proposal of eating Irish babies, rather than having them grow up in a life of misery.