A Modest Proposal Rhetorical Analysis

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Have you ever met someone who is excessively dramatic? Someone who can take a minut action and blow it out of proportion? Parody is defined as the imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect. Parody is oftentimes paired with another literature tool commonly known as satire. Satire is defined as the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices particularly used in the context of contemporary politics. Jonathan Swift, the author of A Modest Proposal, uses both of these literary tools in his writing. In the article A modest Proposal , Swift distinguishes a pronounced problem in the country of Ireland. The dilemma consists of the overgrowth of poor children who are …show more content…
He proposes his idea in this manner, “I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection….That the remaining hundred thousand may at a year old be offered in sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom, always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore and hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter (pg. 6).” As seen in the previous quote, it can be understood that the proposed idea is grossly extreme. However, there must be a solution to this extreme problem. Here Jonathon Swift effectively uses satire and parody to prove that the current issue needs a solution. How does this proposition make you feel? Does it make you recognize the need for a solution? Jonathan Swift vividly compels you to believe the problem is real and needs to be