Modest Proposal Essay

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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. The author uses numerical data to appeal to logos, and references experts to appeal to ethos. The article uses similes, animalistic imagery, comparing poor, excess children to animals who are sold, cooked, and eaten as not to be wasted in such a poor situation. Of course, the author’s proposal is far from modest, and throughout his satirical proposal he backs up his claims with numerical data and appeals to human logic. 3. • papist- a Roman Catholic • encumbrance- something burdensome, useless, or superfluous • curate- any ecclesiastic entrusted with the cure of souls, as a parish priest • parsimony- extreme or excessive frugality; stinginess 4. The tone of the article is sardonic. 5. 1) Simile: “…I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife as we do roasting pigs.” (pg. 916) 2) Simile: “…their flesh was generally tough and lean like that of our school boys by continual exercise and their taste disagreeable…” (pg. 916) 3) Animalistic imagery: “… the fore and hind quarter will make a reasonable dish…” (pg. 916) 4) Appeal to logos: “The number of souls in this kingdom being usually being reckoned one million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about 200,000 couple whose wives are breeders…” (pg. 915) 5) Appeal to ethos: “… my American acquaintance assured me, from frequent experience, that their flesh was

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