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A Modest Proposal Satire Analysis

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The major goal of writing a work of satire is to subversively expose social ills through the use of outlandish exaggerations that reveal moral truths. The satire does the work by utilizing the dominant mode of communication during a given historical moment. The satirist holds a social responsibility and that responsibility is to draw attention to the moral failings of the government as well as the people using various means of communication. In A Modest Proposal, Swift adopts the pamphlet genre to deliver his social criticism on the problem of poverty in Ireland as well as the expose the indifferent attitudes of the more disadvantaged toward those experiencing economic disparity. Swifts use of economic language as well as his creation of images …show more content…
The women are painted as “Child Murders” in order to paint them as burdens to society in the same way the begging child are. The idea that the child murdering needs preventing rather then children dying from malnourishment suggest that poor were a dumping ground for the nations guilt and the lengths society would go to distract themselves from the real problem. The children being “murdered by their mothers” are actually dying from starvation and the inability of mothers to support their children. Once again the word choice “voluntary” is a keep component in highlighting Swifts implicit claim that in a morally correct society a woman would never voluntary murder her child. Yet, the claim literally reads that child murdering is some sort of ritual practice, again pushing the blame on the poor individuals rather then a neglectful society. The fact that Swift presents this from the perspective of a respected male and the women and children are being regarded as the wrong doers is representative a patriarchal society, which devalues not only the economically disadvantaged but also the women and …show more content…
The observation of poverty from an outside position helps to offer a perspective indifference which mirrors those who hold a status which socially comically separated from the poverty. Individuals are not typically to criticize themselves so this text offers and alternative perspective of disguises self-criticism via an absurd proposal for social reform. In the article “Notes on Allegory and Satire” one of the major arguments made by Ellen Leyburn is that “social mirror” (323). This is the idea that Humor allows for conviction with out placing blame entirely on an individual. Leyburn cites a claim made by swift himself saying, “Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own” ( Leyburn 323). Swift only uses the pronoun I to outline his blame, he never uses you to shift the blame on the reader. Overtly at the conclusion of the proposal he claims, the I implicitly assumes responsibility for while Swift the economist pretends innocence. . This might work so the self aware reader can observer themselves in not the literal consumption of the poor but the metaphorical consumption. Where as the non self-aware reader might bypass introspection entirely, but at least observe the faults of

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