In Jonathan Swift’s satire, “A Modest Proposal” , Swift makes a crazy solution to the people of Ireland to eat the young of the poor people. He proposes several alot of reasons for the solution to the problem of an over-abundance of poor people living on the streets of Ireland. But, the author never answered the question about how to pay for killing the children so his argument became a lot less effective.
It is the author’s opinion that the solution given inside the proposal was not meant to be a serious answer to the problem; instead it was a call to arms for the people of Ireland to begin thinking about the growing problem of the poor, and to come up with answers that problem. The solution the author gives is not exactly persuasive but the idea of it is the part that gets the reader to actually think about it.
The person the author is trying to convince to do this is obviously the people of Ireland, where the problem of the poor is actually happening. The essay’s suggestion was shocking of course; I mean eating babies is a way to save the economy? Come on. But he presented relevant facts and really had support for his issue.
Swift really got into depth when talking about the suggestion. He included possible preparations for the children and also the clear financial benefits. Swift created many pamphlets but this one was the most sarcastic . And “A Modest Proposal” was the last of his writings about Ireland. The time period when this pamphlet came out was when the people of Ireland were extremely poor. Many women were widowed and had no way of supporting their families. And many times the children were not cared for, and they ended up being thieves and what not. Is solution was economically “just”. If the children were used as food they would be more appreciated because they would be needed to feed the Irish people.
But swift really wanted the wealthy people to change! The rich had been criticizing the poor because they were not helping solve the problems they were faced with in Ireland. He really wanted a response from the people who read “A Modest Proposal”. He wanted to know what they though, obviously. Because the idea of doing what he suggested in this writing was outrageous. But within all of the silly ideas he “hides” some practical solutions into the writing like levying a tax on imported goods, using goods only made in Ireland, and doing away with vanity and comfort. So the whole writing wasn’t exactly satirical.
It’s funny that Swift calls the children a burden to their parents. He really believes that these children would do the best good in the community as food for others. This writing is ironic also, because no one would ever be able to take the proposal seriously. Swift says how it is melancholy to see children and beggars on the street. That for some reason, he believes the children should be put up to good use. It seems like Swift has some resentment towards the beggars on the street. This is clear when Swift says, "it is very well known that they are dying, and rotting , by cold and famine, and filth, and vermin . . . they cannot get work and consequently pine away for want of nourish.". This is when you realize that he wants to pretty much getting rid of beggars in his country. Swift ends up basically saying that rich children help advance Ireland and the poor children are nothing but a burden to everyone around them. He also compares the meal of eating to children to a meal where you are eating a pig. He elaborates on how many ways you can cook the child and the assortment of things to place in the meal. But he never mentions what the poor people end up gaining after selling their children. Do they go back to begging? Who knows? Swift obviously isn’t trying to harm anyone, he is just trying to make everyone rich. A get rich quick scheme you could say.
This story was definitely interesting, and Im sure many people who read this thought that it was actually reasonable. Swift tries to shine light on a growing problem back then in Ireland, but he does it in a way to just get people thinking. That he clearly doesn’t want people eating children, but he wants people to try and come up with ways to save their economy and communities. But over all I loved it, it was really humorous and I’m glad I got to read it.
No comments:
Post a Comment