...Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” name English 301 December 3, 20xx In “A Modest Proposal” (1729), Jonathan Swift used satire for a double purpose: to attack those that he considered responsible for the financial situation of Ireland, and in the same time, to push those who were in a position of power to take rational measures against poverty in Ireland. In his poem, Swift made use of the image of the Projector; a character whose role is that o designing plans that would lead to some improvements being made in the society. Swift’s narrator in “A Modest Proposal” is an Economic Projector who imagines the entire plan from the point of view of a cold and objective individual. The impersonation’s result is that most often, critics see the Projector as a person who sounds just like Swift when in fact, the truth is that Jonathan Swift was brilliant in making himself sound like a projector(Lockwood 1974). The present paper examines the role of the Economic Projector in the paper, arguing that he does not represent a projection of Swift’s own persona but rather, he is a character through which the author realizes his satirical purpose. The paper further holds that the projector has a central role in creating the meaning of the work. Literary critics and commenters of Swift’s work placed great emphasis on the role of Swift’s economic projector, the narrator who imagines the entire cannibalistic plan described in the poem....
Words: 1962 - Pages: 8
..... .. | | . |A Modest Proposal | |By Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) | |A Study Guide | |Cummings Guides Home..|..Contact This Site | |.. | |Type of Work | |Purpose | |Historical Background | |Summary | | ...
Words: 7460 - Pages: 30
...Ryan Warm 1 Swift wrote "A Modest Proposal" under a pseudonym, so who is the speaker here? The speaker was created by Swift, and in this case was a man off of the street. 2 Discuss the tone of the piece. Pull examples from the text to support your discussion. The tone was informative and optimistic, because the man told of his solution and believed that it would work. For example, when he says, “There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas!” 3 As you know, effective argumentation appeals to logic (logos), ethics (ethos) and emotions (pathos). Please discuss how Swift uses all three appeals and how these tools impact his purpose. Swift appealed to logic by proposing something illogical, which provokes attention. He appealed to ethics by creating something unethical, which is eating children. He appealed to emotions by making certain people angry with his crazy proposal. All of these appeals cause readers to take interest in his essay and helped them realize the issues in society. 4 Explain the irony in Swift’s title, "A Modest Proposal." This proposal was very extreme, by suggesting the eating of children to solve the problem; so calling it modest is very ironic. 5 Where does this essay fit on the continuum (Horatian to Juvenalian)? Explain/support your position. The essay is Juvenalian...
Words: 540 - Pages: 3
...Splenetic Ogres and Heroic Cannibals in Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal (1729) Ahsan Chowdhury University of Alberta I. Cannibalism: Ethnic Defamation or a Trope of Liberation? In A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to eir Parents and Country, and for Making em Beneficial to the Public () Swift exploits the age-old discourse of ethnic defamation against the Irish that had legitimated the English colonization of Ireland for centuries. One of the most damning elements in Swift’s use of this discourse is that of cannibalism. e discourse of ethnic defamation arose out of the Norman conquest of Ireland in the twelfth century. Clare Carroll points out that “the colonization of the Americas and the reformation as events … generated new discourses inflecting the inherited discourse of barbarism” in early-modern English writing about Ireland (). Narratives of native cannibalism were an indispensable part of these new discourses and practices. For the English authors as well as their continental counterparts, the cannibalistic other of the New World became a yardstick by which to measure the threat posed by internal enemies, be it the indigenous Irish, the French Catholics, or the Moorish inhabitants of Spain.¹ us, it was against the backdrop of the reforma Carroll demonstrates that while continental authors like Bartolomé de Las Casas and Jean de Léry could treat the Amerindians and their cannibalistic practices ...
Words: 11492 - Pages: 46
...Jonathan Swift 1. Swift wrote "A Modest Proposal" under a pseudonym, so who is the speaker here? The speaker is a Protestant and a member of the Irish upper class. 2. Discuss the tone of the piece. Pull examples from the text to support your discussion. Swift showed disgust for the people who would rather beg than take care of themselves. He says, “These mothers instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country, to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbados.” 3. As you know, effective argumentation appeals to logic (logos), ethics (ethos) and emotions (pathos). Please discuss how Swift uses all three appeals and how these tools impact his purpose. Swift appeals to logic by stating the issue at hand. He also appeals to logic by asking why it is the public’s responsibility to take care of these needy families. Swift appeals to pathos and ethos through the diction he uses when describing the problem. He wants the situation to change but he wants it to change for every party. 4. Explain the irony in Swift’s title, "A Modest Proposal." The title is ironic because the proposal is anything but modest. Swift presets an outrageous solution to an ongoing problem. His proposal calls attention to this problem in an extremely eye-catching way. He seems...
Words: 932 - Pages: 4
...Assignment #1: Surprise Ending in The Modest Proposal A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift is a satirical story with lots of sarcasm. This proposal was written to shock or force the government into a reaction. As the government read his proposal it should bring about a response. This proposal suggests a “barbaric solution” that amounts purely to cannibalism. Mr. Swift’s idea is to help end poverty and decrease the amount of women beggars by eating babies of the poor. He devised a plan where he would take 20,000 babies and decide how many would be sold, how many would be breeders thus creating a balance between rich and poor. Mr. Swift’s plan would give the poor a means of income and the wealthy would get a fine and delicate meal. He stated that feeding on Irish babies was a treat and the English should be honored to feast on the babies. Swift based his proposal on facts and figures of many years of analyzing the situation. He does seem well educated and well versed on his proposal. He noted several benefits and advantages to his proposal. Some of those benefits included women being more loving towards their children. Another benefit would be more marriages happening with men catering to their wives while they were pregnant. Swift also quoted a friend that was a modern day swindler. The friend was supposedly from Formosa and told a story where 18,000 young boys were sacrificed to the Gods’ and Priests’. The Gods’ dined on the hearts and the Priests’ dine on...
Words: 663 - Pages: 3
...A Modest Proposal Essay Sheila Wolfe HUM112041VA016-1152-001: World Cultures II Dr. Sue Lafferty 01/31/2015 I chose to do my essay on Jonathon Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”. Swift’s Essay is a style called satire (the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. – Dictionary.com). When you first start to read the essay Swift describes the horrible conditions of the poor and the burden on the parents to try and feed their children. As you read on Swift starts to talk about the poor innocent babes being murdered by their mothers or the voluntary abortions running rapid in the Kingdom – “……Women murdering their bastard children, alas! too frequent among us, sacrificing the poor innocent babes, I doubt, more to avoid the expense than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast.” After swift goes through a lengthy description of the deplorable state that the poor are in and running the numbers of children by the poor he then purpose his thoughts on how to deal with the children. His plan for helping the poor sell and eat their children. WHAT?? Swift wrote “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragoust.” When I first read those...
Words: 683 - Pages: 3
...beggars (Swift, 2013). Jonathan Swift, seeking to solve a monumental problem concerning the poor, outlines his ideas in what is really an assertive and bold proposal, rather than the modest proposal that he entreats. Troubled by Ireland’s economic depression and social ills, he resolves to offer his ideas for improving the living conditions for the poor and, in tandem, improving the economy. The answer, supported by no less than six pillars of reason, is to eat the babies. As if that were not appalling enough, he saves the best part for last: “I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work …I have no children, by which I can propose to get a single penny…and my wife past child-bearing” (Swift, 2013). Cannibalism is probably most plausible because it requires no personal sacrifice on Swift’s part. The idea that such an immodest proposal could be taken seriously seems inconceivable. However, the surprise ending is even more ridiculous. Surely, Swift’s finesse at suggesting such a deplorable remedy rests in his knowing that he will be unscathed. To coin a phrase: “there will be no skin from his kin.” For this reason, his propositions are neither credible nor convincing, and the ending simply serves to further illuminate the preposterous ideas in the proposal. Thankfully, Swift’s idea of “fanatical savagery” is but a satire of England’s harsh treatment of Ireland, offering that “England was...
Words: 357 - Pages: 2
...A Modest Proposal to End Poverty When reading the 1729 proposal written by Jonathan Swift a lot of thoughts can arise in a grueling manner. How could anyone conclude that eating and selling adolescents for humans to consume can actually become the elucidation to end such poverty and over-population in Ireland? The conception is iniquitous and brazen at so many levels, especially if it was a concrete idea for the government to execute in an immoral way. While I construe Swift’s proposal as time went on I began to understand the point of view of why it lead to contemplation of figuring out how to control such devastations. I can say Swift was appalled at the upper class’s treatment of the poor, and is affront by their objections to even having to look at them. This shows me that Swift had a luminous idea of how the rich looked upon the poor as human beings. As I read on I can definitely see the sardonic tone when Swift proposes that everyone just consume adolescents, which would provide commerce and money to the impecunious families who sell their babies, and of course rid them of the need to feed that child in the first place. I can vouch for a lot of people who reads Swift’s proposal and immediately thinks he’s actually austere when it came to those mind boggling acts. I think a savvy reader will find some clues of the satirical tone. Some examples had me rethink what I might of thought before, the first one is when Swift talks about the landlords (the English people who...
Words: 567 - Pages: 3
...“A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift In Jonathan Swift’s essay “A Modest Proposal” he provides a satirical look at how to address the issue of the poor in Ireland. Poverty, however, is not the only issue of his time as there is also a question of moral issues among the people, both poor and rich. The focus of Swift’s writing is to unburden both parents and the economy of the over population of children, “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 3). Swift used this theme of unjust behavior to announce how tragic and real these issues were, he brought poverty into prospective and ridiculed society all at once. Swift starts out his proposal with a back ground description of just what it would be like to simply walk down a street in Ireland and see all the misfortune that was surrounding so many people. Poverty here was not a hidden problem it was not something that took investigation to see it was very noticeable yet no one was looking for a solution. It can be inferred that the upper class, a good example would be the landlords, were being greedy and irresponsible governing their land from England. Swift pokes fun at the landlords and England’s mistreatment of Ireland in general when he states “I grant this food may be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have...
Words: 463 - Pages: 2
...Title: Swift’s A Modest Proposal Student: Judy Williams Professor: Steven Harn Course: Humanity 112 (World Culture) Date: April 28, 2015 Johnathan Swift wrote the A Modest Proposal in 1729 (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). Swift was born in England to two English parents (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). Swift father had died before he was born (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). Swift did not like the way England was treating the people in Ireland (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). Ireland was a country where the people were destitute. There were thousands of people that were unable to take care of their families. There was not much employment in Ireland. Ireland crime rate was very high because of poverty. Swift decided to come up with a proposal to help the people in Ireland. The elements in this selection were the idea of selling children to save the parents from their children. The families in Ireland were indigent, and the parents were unable to take care of their children. The writer felt like it would be easy to persuade the parents to agree to his proposal. In Ireland, there were thousands of people in poverty. The author believed that this proposal would decrease the population by thousands because the children were too young to work or even steal (Swift, 1729). The author felt that if adults didn’t have any children then they would not have to beg people for help (Swift, 1729). So, the author came up with a proposal that the parents should sell their children to the meat...
Words: 883 - Pages: 4
...Charles Crespo Professor Margaret Hazell ENG 2850 9 April 2013 What is satire, satire is a particular genre of literature that sometimes makes use of graphic and performing arts with the intent of ridiculing society into self-improvement. With social criticism being its main goal, it utilizes wit and dark sarcasm as its main tools to illustrate its point. Satire influences individuals to reevaluate themselves in order to modify senseless thoughts and behaviors. Various techniques are used in order to deliver a satirist effect, those of which house wit as their main weapon. These methods harmonize the mastering of coexisting trivial and serious matters as one sarcasm, showing praise but meaning the contrary to demonstrate irony, and asking questions rhetorically. Additionally, the author might understate an issue in order to maneuver the audience towards the true importance of the topic, adversely; exaggeration is used to lower the impact of an issue to its lesser value. Collectively, these techniques are exercised to bring out the human follies and vices in society. In Molière’s Tartuffe and Jonathan Swift’s essay A Modest Proposal, that both obliquely criticize and burlesque human behavior and the perception we have towards others. Through a satirist delivery, these authors offer an insight past the seemingly obvious, and aim to improve this faulty custom of one sidedness rather than eliminating it. Although these pair of literary pieces illustrates satire, it is Molière’s...
Words: 1574 - Pages: 7
...unemployment, housing, and money. There are no overnight solutions to this world wide epidemic, but some of our leaders are just as much to blame by turning their heads rather than finding the solutions. According to statistics one out of eight individuals suffers from malnutrition. This means that out of 7 billion people in the world, 870 million are still underfed. In Jonathan Swift’s “Modern Proposal” essay, he snubs the Irish and English rulers for their economic policies concerning the poor. Swift explains that they are not dealing with the issue of poverty in Ireland by refusing to create a solution. Citizens and those in power need to create lasting solutions to end poverty in our nation. Jonathan Swift essay, “Modern Proposal” presents solutions to keep poor children from being a burden to their families. The English government turned their heads to the deplorable economic conditions in which the people were living in and he hated the inhumanity that he witnessed. Ireland was in dire poverty and most of the victims were women and children that were beggars (630-631). So Swift devised a number of proposal and solutions to rid Ireland of this problem. Swifts argues that poor children would be better off being eaten as food rather than wondering the streets of Ireland begging. According to Swift, “A young healthy well nursed child would make nourishing and wholesome food.” For example, he explains that a child can make two servings as entertainment for friends and claims...
Words: 1171 - Pages: 5
...A Modest Proposal was a satirical essay written by Jonathan Swift depicting the horrific conditions of Ireland and the lives of the Irish people in 1729. Swift writes the satire disguised as a social planner of the time who as Swift satirizes were known to be overly rational rather than compassionate. The author portrays and attacks the cruel and unjust oppression of Ireland by its oppressor, the mighty English and ridicules the Irish people at the same time. However, Swift's opposition is indirectly presented. Jonathan Swift is able to do so by using the persona, irony, and wit in order to expose the remarkable corruption and degradation of the Irish people, and at the same time present them with practicable solutions to their economic problem Swift uses the false persona in order to satire the social workers of the time as he saw them. Swift creates a fictional persona because by hiding his true identity he is able to convince the readers of the significance of Ireland's problem and allow them to see truth and reality. The persona is a concerned Irishman who is very intelligent, sound, and serious. He appears to be a brute and a monster for proposing something 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 persona declares, and at exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them, in a such a manner as, instead of being...
Words: 1077 - Pages: 5
...Very “Modest” Irony and Satire Jonathan Swift was born in Ireland in the 18th century during an era that has come to be known as the Golden Age of Satire. As a writer, he was profoundly influenced by the political climate of his times, especially the plight of the Irish poor, which spurred him to write the satirical, social commentary “A Modest Proposal.” The satirical essay addresses the issue of inequality and poverty experienced by the Irish through an outlandish solution that is “beneficial” to everyone. Verbal is present throughout the essay and even in the title. The proposal is far from modest and is rather shocking which Swift does to grab the attention of the reader. He satirically recommends commoditizing Irish babies to improve the economic outlook by selling poor Irish babies to the rich as a delicious food item. Swift’s proposal in his essay is a technique used to highlight a real issue and bring awareness to it by ridiculing the public (reader) through satire. The definition of satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, and ridicule to expose and criticize people’s vices. In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift does exactly that through clever social commentary on the issue of poverty among the poor in Ireland through the various forms of satire. Swift differentiates the social classes in his writing through imagery, detailing the differences between the rich and the poor. He states, “Prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their...
Words: 1266 - Pages: 6
