In the essay, "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift, he declares his thesis about English landowners' treatment of the Irish. In the intro they say "the persona he creates is utterly inhumane, and advocate of infanticide and cannibalism" (492). He basically writes about how English landowners eat the children of the Irish people. This satirical essay by Jonathan Swift uses a certainly unthinkable ... Ireland. He relies on the readers' sense of morality to see the humor in it. The point of Swift's essay, to get readers to understand his view point on the treatment of Irish people. He tells t...

• Word Count: 805
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... " is verbal irony, in which a writer or speaker says the opposite of what he means. Swift's masterly use of this device makes his main argument, that the Irish deserve better treatment from the English powerful and dreadfully amusing, "Some persons of a desponding spirit are in great concern about that vast number of poor people, who are aged, diseased, or maimed ... by pure motive but they are not human. As we know they are not but figuratively they seem like real humans until Swift disclosures them as dull, unsympathetic beings, thoroughly inhumane. They don't take notice in love or do...

• Word Count: 1187
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate