In a literature textbook entitled The Informed Argument edited by Robert K. Miller there is an essay written by Jonathan Swift called “A Modest Proposal,” in which Swift states that he has come up with a revolutionary proposal to make the poor children of Ireland beneficial to the community. Although it looks like Swift writes this paper in a serious manner, upon closer analysis it is easy to see that the language used is very satirical. The main point that Swift makes in his essay is that young infants would be a welcome addition to the tables of wealthy gentlemen, and also decrease the number of poor children begging throughout the streets. Many people believe that his essay is nothing more than an essay to entertain the rich and prestigious, and also to give himself more fame and recognition among the prosperous people in Ireland.

Swift starts out his paper by describing the scene of Ireland, “The streets crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three children . . . in rags and harassing every person for money.” Swift, being the bright fellow he is, decides to come up with his own solution to make these begging children useful to the society. His proposal is

The way in which swift writes “A Modest Proposal” is clearly satirical and contains a lot of irony. Swift writes his proposal not to beg people to think about the well being of the poor people in the community, but to entertain the upper-class and to laugh at their unfortunate situation. This question is raised in the opening sentence of the story when he says that it is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town to see beggars on the side of every corner. At first glance it looks like he is compassionate about the beggars, but what his statement really means that he is tired of walking through the streets seeing the sights of poverty and beseeching. Another part of the story that shows his true emotions about the poor is when he says, “. . . it is very well known that [the poor] are every day dying and rotting by cold and famine . . . they cannot get work and consequently pine away for want of nourishment.” In fact Swift’s main purpose is to get rid of the poor who are clogging the streets with their death, decay, and constant begging by eventually getting rid of the youngest generations of the deprived. Another way Swift shows his bias towards the rich is when he mentions that only the upper-class gentlemen will be able to purchase children for dining. The upper-class will also be able to take the carcasses and use them to, "make admirable gloves for ladies and summer boots for fine

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