A Modest Proposal
"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift is a satirical work that gives an extremely sarcastic solution to the problems that Ireland was having with poverty and overpopulation. He gives a series of unrealistic and absurd solutions to the problem that include the harsh treatment of children. The proposal in question was to suggest that poor families of Ireland sell their children to be slaughtered for meat, thereby bringing in valuable income for the family. This His all around solution is to "fatten up" the undernourished children and selling them into a meat market where they will be sold for food, thus solving the economic and population problems in Ireland. Swift does this through a very sarcastic style.
This piece is written as an attack on the indifference of landlords to the state of their tenants, with their calculations on the schemes to raise income, the entire piece is written in a deeply ironic tone, with scathing comments about the state of the poor and their landlords such as, "I grant this food may 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."
Jonathan Swift uses a satire to accomplish his objective because it is the most effective way to make people to see the depravity. This work starts off with a concerned Irishman who is very intelligent, sound, and serious. He appears to be a psychopath for proposing something as evil and immoral very calmly as if it is normal to consume the flesh of another human being. What makes his proposal to be even more depraved is that he proposes to eat the babies. The man declares, "and at exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them, in a such a manner as, instead of being a charge upon their parents, or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding and partly to the clothing of many thousands." Swift...
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