Examples Of Satire In A Modest Proposal

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A Modest Satire
A Modest Proposal begins with an account of the impoverished state of many in Ireland. This satirical essay goes in depth about the consumption of babies that written to bring light to the discontent in Ireland and how there was no real action to change that. The writer, Jonathan Swift, expresses sympathy and the need for a solution. This proposal hopefully will decrease the number of abortions performed by poor mothers. The writer first calculates the number of infants born in Ireland and asks what should be done with them then points out that they are unfit for any employment, being even too young to steal. Neither will merchants buy nor sell children. He explains this in three sections; the first part is where he describes the best possible way to breed and consume the children, next he goes into the six ways it will benefit us to do so, then finally leaving off with how this will not encumber England in anyway and that he is open to other suggestions.
The writer treats the weight of an infant, what kind of dish it will make, and how many people it will serve. He tells us the times of year when there will be the most babies, based on the sexual patterns of the Irish. There might also used for the discarded skin of the infants, such as for ladies’ gloves. A friend of …show more content…
Swift responds by saying that this is the point. He says that this proposal will in no way encumber England, as the infants will not be able to be exported, as their flesh is not easily preserved for later consumption. He is not willing to entertain any other arguments for solving the problem, like virtue and thrift. Swift concludes by saying first that he would welcome any other suggestions anyone may have on this question, then assuring the reader that he has no personal economic stake in this idea because he has no children and therefore could not profit by selling them to be

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While the argument and nearly all of the content in this excerpt from “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift is satirical, the first specific example of satire is in the title itself. Before reading the entirety of the excerpt, this is impossible to recognize. Once the content of this “modest proposal” is understood by the reader, it is clear that the title is meant to be highly ironic. The proposal- succinctly stated- is that in order to deal with the surplus of unfed infants in Ireland, they should…

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Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal is one of the most famous literary works of the eighteenth century. The essay begins with offering a useful proposal to help the poor children of Ireland so that it benefits the commonwealth. Later, the proposer suggests that poor families should sell their children as food for the rich. In order to support this ironic proposal, the narrator uses statistical data to suggest the number of the babies to get sell, plus their proper weight and price. Furthermore, Swift…

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Beneath the irony of Dr. Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, Dr. Swift takes a satire approach in his sarcastic treatment of Ireland’s people in poverty by the cutthroat state of mind of the well-heeled. Satirists utilize hysterics to address circumstances they find unsatisfactory and subsequently needing a change. He provides a collection of farfetched and basically foolish answers to the troubles that include the thundering treatment concerning the youth. Dr. Swift uses an unorthodox approach in…

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In his essay “A Modest Proposal,” Jonathan Swift provides a quick and satiric analysis of the economic problems Ireland in the early 1700s faced and offers a “solution” to the problem: serving the children of the poor to the rich as a delicacy. As his earlier reasonable proposals failed to garner any real attention, Swift attempts to shock his audience in a way that both outlines the true dimensions of the problem as well as forces action to be taken to rectify the poverty, starvation, and inability…

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In the satirical piece Modest Proposal, Swift points out the problems in seventeen-hundred Ireland in an unconventional way. With all of the poverty and overpopulation in Ireland at the time, he suggests raising poor children as food or delicacies for the wealthy. Swift shocks the reader with this suggestion in order to express the problems of Ireland through satire which is created by formal diction, logical evidence, and irony. Throughout this piece, Swift speaks in a professional tone as if he…

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A Review of A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift Essay

E101 14 September 2013 A Modest Proposal A Modest Proposal was written by Irish author Jonathan Swift and publish as a print in 1729. His proposal is very well known because of the creative way he utilizes satire. The satirical elements enhance the point he is trying to make, and grab people’s attention. From the reader can tell his purpose, audience, genre, stance and media. Authors can have many purposes for writing an essay, article or book. In A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift has one very…

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