Swift's Modest Proposal
Jonathan Swift’s proposal to Ireland concerning growing and selling babies for food and clothing is a barbaric and irrational idea—at first, but Swift gradually manipulates the reader to accept his thoughts as intelligent and rational. Swift uses satire throughout his “Modest Proposal”—satire meaning the use of sarcasm, or humor in a literary piece to ridicule or attack human vices. Swift is very effective in using patterns to create satire. At times he is sympathetic and other times callous, while using facts and statistics to create a specific effect and to strengthen his argument. Satire is very clearly developed in Swift’s proposal. He believes there is a serious epidemic within Ireland, stating that with all the financial problems facing its people, children are just an “additional grievance” (Swift). According to Swift, even if the poor got jobs, or sold into slavery or if the poor steal at a larger rate, the situation would still be the same. This makes one wonder what his actual proposal is going to be about. “It is of a much greater extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain age who are born of parents in effect as little able to support them
Facts and statistics are another vice Swift uses to compliment his proposal. He states he has done calculations, such as, “of the hundred thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed” (Swift). He also mentions a solar year and predicts that a medium child born will weigh twelve pounds and if the baby is nursed correctly it will weigh twenty-eight pounds. He seems to have put a lot of time in his research making his outrageous suggestions so convincing. He has stated that the “diseased, old and maimed” don’t need to be worried about because each day they die of “cold, famine, filth and vermin as fast as can be reasonably expected.” Which makes another point in his favor. These facts and statistics used make his point clear to the audience; it gives support to his reasoning’s creating a specific effect. The proposal Swift has given regarding growing and selling babies in order to help Ireland seems to be insane, but, it eventually has a true meaning. There were many effective patterns of satire used by Swift and he was also sympathetic at a certain point. The facts and statistics used, eventually come into play and complete his idea. Though one can spend many hours analyzing the words, sentences and entire paragraphs to find a deeper meaning, it should be left considered as
Some topics in this essay:
Swift Swift,
Jonathan Swift,
According Swift,
Jonathan Swift’s,
Obviously Swift,
swift’s proposal,
satire swift,
,
satire swift sympathetic,
growing selling babies,
selling babies,
help ireland,
towards audience,
swift sympathetic,
growing selling,
proposal mentions,
specific effect,
patterns satire,
Join now to see the rest of the essay!
Approximate Word count = 896
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
More Essays on Swift Modest Proposal Professional Papers: |
CUSTOMER SERVICES
|
|
Saved Papers
You haven't saved any papers.
|