A Modest Proposal

JONATHAN SWIFT

Summary

The full title of Swift's pamphlet is "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being
a Burthen to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick." The tract is an
ironically conceived attempt to "find out a fair, cheap, and easy Method" for converting the starving children
of Ireland into "sound and useful members of the Commonwealth." Across the country poor children,
predominantly Catholics, are living in squalor because their families are too poor to keep them fed and
clothed.

The author argues, by hard-edged economic reasoning as well as from a self-righteous moral stance, for a
way to turn this problem into its own solution. His proposal, in effect, is to fatten up these undernourished
children and feed them to Ireland's rich land-owners. Children of the poor could be sold into a meat market
at the age of one, he argues, thus combating overpopulation and unemployment, sparing families the
expense of child-bearing while providing them with a little extra income, improving the culinary experience of
the wealthy, and contributing to the overall economic well-being of the nation.

The author offers statistical support for his assertions and gives specific data about the number of children to
be sold, their weight and price, and the projected consumption patterns. He suggests some recipes for
preparing this delicious new meat, and he feels sure that innovative cooks will be quick to generate more.
He also anticipates that the practice of selling and eating children will have positive effects on family
morality: husbands will treat their wives with more respect, and parents will value their children in ways
hitherto unknown. His conclusion is that the implementation of this project will do more to solve Ireland's
complex social, political, and economic problems than any other measure that has been proposed.

A Modest Proposal
JONATHAN SWIFT

Analysis

In A Modest Proposal, Swift vents his mounting aggravation at the ineptitude of Ireland's politicians, the
hypocrisy of the wealthy, the tyranny of the English, and the squalor and degradation in which he sees so
many Irish people living. While A Modest Proposal bemoans the bleak situation of an Ireland almost totally
subject to England's exploitation, it also expresses Swift's utter disgust at the Irish people's seeming inability
to mobilize on their own behalf. Without excusing any party, the essay shows that not only the English but
also the Irish themselves--and not only the Irish politicians but also the masses--are responsible for the
nation's lamentable state. His compassion for the misery of the Irish people is a severe one, and he includes
a critique of their incompetence in dealing with their own problems.
Political pamphleteering was a fashionable pastime in Swift's day, which saw vast numbers of tracts and
essays advancing political opinions and proposing remedies for Ireland's economic and social ills. Swift's
tract parodies the style and method of these, and the grim irony of his own solution reveals his personal
despair at the failure of all this paper journalism to achieve any actual progress. His piece protests the utter
inefficacy of Irish political leadership, and it also attacks the orientation of so many contemporary reformers
toward economic utilitarianism. While Swift himself was an astute economic thinker, he often expressed
contempt for the application of supposedly scientific management ideas to humanitarian concerns.

The main rhetorical challenge of this bitingly ironic essay is capturing the attention of an audience whose
indifference has been well tested. Swift makes his point negatively, stringing together an appalling set of
morally untenable positions in order to cast blame and aspersions far and wide. The essay progresses
through a series of surprises that first shocks the reader and then causes her to think critically not only about
policies, but also about motivations and values.

Swift's motives for writing "A Modest Proposa" (text), which appeared in 1729, were
complex. He felt, for his own part, that he had been exiled to Ireland when he would have
much preferred to have been in England, and his personal sense of the wrongs he had
received at the hands of the English only intensified the anger he felt at the way England
mistreated Ireland. Though he was most concerned with the plight of his own class, the
relatively prosperous Anglo-Irish who were members of the Church of Ireland, rather
than that of the Irish Presbytarians of Ulster or that of the Roman Catholics who made up
the largest, and the poorest, segment of the Irish population, he spoke, in the end, for the
country as a whole. He lived in an Ireland which was a colony, politically, militarily, and
economically dependent upon England. It was manifestly in England's interest to keep
things as they were: a weak Ireland could not threaten England, and the measures which
kept it weak were profitable for the English. As a result Ireland was a desperately poor
country, overpopulated, full, as Swift said, of beggars, wracked periodically by famine,
heavily taxed, and with no say at all in its own affairs. England controlled the Irish
legislature. English absentee landlords owned most of the land which was worth owning.
Irish manufacturies were deliberately crippled so that they could not compete with those
in England.

Swift was enraged at the passivity of the Irish people, who had become so habituated to
the situation that they seemed incapable of making any effort to change it. The Irish
Parliament ignored numerous proposals which Swift made in earnest — proposals to tax
absentee landlords, to encourage Irish industries, to improve the land, agricultural
techniques, and the quality of manufactured goods — which would have begun to rectify
things.

"A Modest Proposal," then, is at once a disgusted parody of Swift's own serious
proposals, as well as those of less disinterested "projectors," and a savage indictment both
of the exploitive English and of the exploited Irish. Rhetorically, it is enormously
sophisticated; requiring that we accept and reject its central premise at one and the same
time. In it Swift owes a debt to Defoe's "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters": behind
the role-playing, behind the semblance of quietly realistic humanitarianism and calm
reasonableness lies a savage indignation directed at the exploiter as well as an implicit
compassion for the exploited. Behind the "Modest Proposer," that is, stands an enraged
and sardonic Swift, asking both sides whether the whole matter is not merely a question
of degree; a question of the extent to which a human being — the manipulator or the
manipulated — can be dehumanized. Once the process of dehumanization gets underway,
as it obviously is, in a country in which no one — not even the unfortunates themselves
— seems to mind or object to the fact that tens of thousands of human beings starve to
death each year, where can one calmly, sanely, and logically draw the line and say thus
far and no farther? "A Modest Proposal" is a manifestation of Swift's sense of anger and
frustration, and as such it is merely the most savage, the most brutal, the most heavily
ironic, of the numerous tracts which he produced during the early eighteenth century in
an attempt to shame England and to shock Ireland out of its lethargic state. It is a ghastly
masterpiece, cunningly devised, horribly plausible, deviously manipulative: it remains for
the reader to come to terms with it, to comprehend it, and to determine the extent to
which, oddly enough, it might be relevant in our own world.

Theme Analysis

Swift's dehumanizing satire strives to shed light on the horrible situation of

English/Irish tensions in Ireland. On a basic level Swift indicts the English
Protestants for their cruel and inhumane treatment of the papists, or poor
Catholics, through both political and economic oppression. This is seen
most clearly when his projector muses that England would be more than
willing to eat the Irish even without such a proposal, saying, ".I could name a
country which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it."

Yet perhaps even more criticism is heaped on the Irish for not recognizing the
horror of their own situation, and not taking constructive steps to remedy the
problem. The very fact that such an immodest proposal can be given and
received with such seriousness proves that all peoples involved have lost
even the thinnest shred of human decency and respect.

On a larger lever, Swift successfully indicts the brutality of man as a whole. A

Modest Proposal goes well beyond the limits of Europe, shedding a sickening
light on all

humanity and the way in which we treat each other.

Top Ten Quotes

1) In his introduction, Swift's projector explains the reason for his proposal:
"for Preventing the Children of poor People in Ireland, from being a Burden
to their Parents or Country; and for making them beneficial to the Publick."

2) "It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town, or
travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin-doors
crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six
children, all in rags, ad importuning every passenger for an alms."

3) "But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for the
children of professed beggars; it is of a much greater extent.."

4) ".I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives
are breeders."

5) "I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in

London, that a young healthy child, well nursed, is, at a year old, a most
delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food.."

6) "Infants' flesh will be in season throughout the year.."

7) "I compute that Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand
carcasses.."

8) "I can think of no one objection that will possibly be raised against this
proposal.."

9) ".I could name a country which would be glad to eat up our whole nation
without it."

10) "I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal
interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other
motive than the public good of my country.."
Chapter 1

It doesn't take long to summarize the short "pamphlet" that is Swift's Modest
Proposal. To remedy the problem of the poverty-stricken, oppressed and
uneducated population of Catholics in Ireland, Swift's projector calmly and
rationally proposes that thousands of the children should be killed and
eaten. This will help both the overpopulated poor, who can't afford to care
for their children anyway, and the rich, who will get a good meal out of the
whole process. Even in his introduction he explains the reason for his
proposal: "for Preventing the Children of poor People in Ireland, from being a
Burden to their Parents or Country; and for making them beneficial to the
Publick."

What follows is a very artful attempt to justify such a seemingly outrageous

scheme. Yet throughout the discourse, the projector never loses his cool, but
proceeds to logically lay out the ground work for such a proposal.

The following reasons he uses to advance his plan are summarized below.
First, eating the poor children will solve the problem of population among the
papists, or the Catholics. Second, it will make the remaining papists richer,
since they will have such valuable commodities to sell in exchange for rent
credit, etc. Third, it will help the economy since less money will have to be
spent on the upbringing of so many poor children. This system, lastly, will
produce a better cultural environment for Ireland as a whole, encouraging
marriage and the charms of the tavern.
Finally, the projector defends his intentions in offering such a proposal,
explaining that he has no personal advantages which will be derived from his
plan, since his children are all too old to kill and his wife is too old to have
more children.
Metaphor Analysis

To pick out a single metaphor from Swift's Modest Proposalwould be to

undercut his message as a whole. The whole pamphlet, indeed, in its
entirety, is one giant, metaphorical irony. The
horror of the narrator's irony serves as a constant
metaphor for the horror being experienced by the
people of Ireland. His awful proposal is a result, an echo of sorts, of the
terrible suffering of the speaker's own fellow citizens. Thus, Swift carefully
uses his entire satire as a symbol for the atrocities already known in his
country.
Theme Analysis

Swift's dehumanizing satire strives to shed light on the horrible situation of

English/Irish tensions in Ireland. On a basic level
Swift indicts the English Protestants for their cruel
and inhumane treatment of the papists, or poor
Catholics, through both political and economic
oppression. This is seen most clearly when his projector muses that England
would be more than willing to eat the Irish even without such a proposal,
saying, ".I could name a country which would be glad to eat up our whole
nation without it."

Yet perhaps even more criticism is heaped on the Irish for not recognizing the
horror of their own situation, and not taking constructive steps to remedy the
problem. The very fact that such an immodest proposal can be given and
received with such seriousness proves that all peoples involved have lost
even the thinnest shred of human decency and respect.

On a larger lever, Swift successfully indicts the brutality of man as a whole. A

Modest Proposal goes well beyond the limits of Europe, shedding a sickening
light on all

humanity and the way in which we treat each other.

Top Ten Quotes

1) In his introduction, Swift's projector explains the

reason for his proposal: "for Preventing the
Children of poor People in Ireland, from being a
Burden to their Parents or Country; and for making them beneficial to the
Publick."

2) "It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town, or
 travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin-doors
crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six
children, all in rags, ad importuning every passenger for an alms."

3) "But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for the
children of professed beggars; it is of a much greater extent.."

4) ".I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives
are breeders."

5) "I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in

London, that a young healthy child, well nursed, is, at a year old, a most
delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food.."

6) "Infants' flesh will be in season throughout the year.."

7) "I compute that Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand
carcasses.."

8) "I can think of no one objection that will possibly be raised against this
proposal.."

9) ".I could name a country which would be glad to eat up our whole nation
without it."

10) "I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal
interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other
motive than the public good of my country.."

The use of detailed satire through A Modest Proposal

The use of detailed satire is very evident in A Modest Proposal. A writer’s hand

that brings the reader’s eye to the effect of sociopolitical policies on the Irish by the

English landlords and politicians in the early 1700s, could have only belonged to

Jonathon Swift. Swift skillfully addresses “ the suffering caused by English policies in

Ireland ” as well as holding the Irish accountable for their “passivity.”

Swift begins by using a gradual egression, setting the tone of the current situation

in Dublin, only to shock the reader at his proposal of cannibalism, specifically of young

children, to help alleviate the economic burdens imposed by the English and accepted by

the Irish.
In laying the foundation for his proposal, Swift suggests the benefits for all:

But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for the

children of professed beggars; 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 as those who demand our charity in the streets.

Swift continues on, using excruciating detail, suggesting preparation for dining,

the appropriate number of dinner guests the young child will feed, and the price of such a

feast. All the while this morbid suggestion is detailed rationally. Swift brilliantly

targets the English landlords when he addresses the price of the food, and how it is

appropriate since “as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to

have the best title to the children.” Swift’s use of detail purposely takes the reader away

from the proposal to show the examples of how cannibalism has worked elsewhere, only

in a satiric effort to show the reader this is not the way to improve the city of Dublin.

The build-up of this proposal continues to its conclusion where Swift has taken the reader

to the actual expedients, although rejecting them for no hope of them ever being

implemented.

Throughout the work, Swift addresses, through satire, the poor and their lack of

motivation to change and the rich as they exploit them. Swift’s use of detailed satire in A

Modest Proposal brings one so close to his absurd and horrific plan that it allows you to

see injustice on the poor and the follies of the rich all the while encouraging all to see the

true remedy of the public good.

Three Excerpts from Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal

Through Jonathan Swift's mastery of satire, his pen continually stings the wealthy class of Ireland
and England. The idea of the wealthier oppressing the poor is shown by the following passage
from 'A Modest Proposal.' 'I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for
landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to
the children.' In this passage, Swift satirically implies that the children should be quite useful since
the landlords have already "devoured", or used up the parents. This excerpt further addresses the
frivolous habits of the wealthy. "He said that many gentlemen of this kingdom, having of late
destroyed their deer, he conceived that the want of venison might be well supplied by the bodies
of young lads and maidens…." This brings to light the whimsical manner in which the wealthy use
up their resources with no regard to the future. The third passage from "A Modest Proposal"
sheds light on the plight of poor tenants to their landlords. "…The poor tenants will have
something valuable of their own, which by law may be made liable to distress, and help to pay
their landlord's rent, their corn and cattle being already seized and money a thing unknown." This
passage shows that even the sold children could be taxed. The wealthy would use that against
the poor, since they have already taken anything else of value. Jonathan Swift screams satire in a
very loud voice. The three passages referred to from "A Modern Proposal" are just an example of
his vocal volume against the wealthy of Ireland and England.

This essay by Jonathan Swift is a brutal satire in which he suggests that the poor Irish families
should kill their young children and eat them in order to eliminate the growing number of starving
citizens. At this time is Ireland, there was extreme poverty and wide gap between the poor and
the rich, the tenements and the landlords, respectively. Throughout the essay Swift uses satire
and irony as a way to attack the indifference between classes. Swift is not seriously suggesting
cannibalism, he is trying to make known the desperate state of the lower class and the need for a
social and moral reform in Ireland.
Jonathan Smith goes to extreme measures to explain his new plan to raise the economic
wellbeing of his country. He explains what age is too young and what age is too old, in order to
eat the tenants children when they are at their prime juiciness. He also gives a list of suggestions
on how to cook them, ?A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious
nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled, and I make no doubt
that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout.? All of this talk about eating children comes as
a surprise because previous to this disturbing suggestion, Swift is ironically discussing the plight
of starving beggars in Ireland. The reader is unprepared for the solution that he suggests.
The idea of eating all the youth in the country is obviously self-defeating and is not being seriously
suggested by the writer. He is simply trying to show how desperate the lower class is in Ireland.
Swift introduces the reforms he is actually suggesting, taxing absentee landlords, of encouraging
the domestic economy by buying Irish goods, of discouraging pride, vanity, idleness, by
dismissing them in his essay by saying that they are impractical. However, these reforms greatly
differ from his ?modest proposal? because instead of the poor sacrificing their children, it would
involve the rich sacrificing some of their luxuries. He is trying to point out the fact that reforms that
would be practical and beneficial to the people of Ireland are being overlooked for the
convenience of the rich.
Jonathan Swift?s essay is a satirical attempt to describe the devastating social, economic and
political troubles in Ireland and suggest, in a new light, how these may be solved. This title of this
essay is in itself mocking the superficial subject, commercial cannibalism, by saying that it is ?
modest?. Swift is not actually suggesting cannibalism, but in an ironic way, makes known the
desperate and widening gap between classes and the need for a social and moral reform in
Ireland.

Cutting Wit at its Finest

An analysis of the satire of
A Modest Proposal

Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal is an excellent example of the sharp wit and biting
sarcasm that was employed in the satire of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries. Through the effective use of sarcastic comparisons and ironic exaggerations,
Swift managed to impose his cutting wit in a manner and to an extent that was virtually
unprecedented in literature. Although the subjects, or targets, of his sarcasm are different,
the genius inherent in his method of employing it is quite similar.

Jonathan Swift is a master when it comes to satire and cutting wit in writing. His famous
satire, A Modest Proposal, is without a doubt one of the world's foremost examples of
genius in biting sarcasm and irony in literature, whether in comparison to the writings of
his time or even down to the present day. The irony and sarcasm inherent in the title alone
is a perfect example of the power of the written word tweaked slightly in its application.
A Modest Proposal is a pamphlet that Swift wrote in protest to the oppressive treatment
of the Catholic peasants of Ireland by the English, particularly the English absentee
landlords, after the abdication of James II. At the time of its writing, the peasants of
Dublin, and Ireland in general, were in an extremely poverty-stricken condition (Norton
2473, footnote #1). They had become quite populous and therefore quite a burden to the
state. Therefore, A Modest Proposal is, as Swift states in its introduction, a proposed
solution "for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland from being a burden to
their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the public (Norton 2473)."
In using the word "modest" to describe his proposal, Swift introduces an exaggeration of
epic proportions. The utilization of such an unassuming word to describe a suggestion as
horrific and appalling as that which is described in the proposal is utterly ludicrous in
principle, and this is precisely why it is so effective in its application. A well-employed
paradox is an excellent way to grab the attention of an audience, and Swift is a master of
this practice. One needs only read several lines into the text of A Modest Proposal before
it becomes indubitably clear that the proposal is anything but modest.
In short, Swift's "proposal" is that Ireland's overpopulation problem could be solved by
selling a large portion if its one-year-old

children on the market to be used as food, among other things, thereby providing income
for poor peasant mothers and rendering them useful to society as a whole. When stated as
such, the atrocious nature of the proposal is clear. However, Swift employs such
masterfully subtle and witty language that the reader is almost inclined to not notice the
obvious deplorable aspects and to agree with his arguments (Norton 2473, footnote #1).

The skillful irony that Swift employs throughout the proposal is most notably clear in the
justifications of his arguments. Near the beginning of the text, Swift explains that "it is
agreed by all parties" that the overpopulation of children is a problem that is "a very great
additional grievance" to the current "deplorable state" of Ireland. He further states:
". . . and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these
children sound, useful members of the commonwealth would deserve so well of the
public as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation (Norton 2474, first
paragraph)."

One cannot deny that this is a positive and potentially beneficial suggestion. It is not until
further along in the text, however, that Swift's true proposal becomes clear.
When Swift finally begins to introduce the true nature of his suggestions, the reader
begins to raise an eyebrow, perhaps, at the severity of what he is implying. However, the
language that he employs again masks the horror of its reality. Swift casually states that
an acquaintance of his has assured him that "a young healthy child well nursed is at a
year old a most delicate, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted,
baked, or boiled. He then flippantly adds, "and I make no doubt that it will equally serve
in a fricassee or a ragout (Norton 2475, first paragraph). At this point, the reader must
take a step back and ask himself whether or not he really understands what Swift is
implying. Although the language is clear, it is paradoxically at odds with its tone. It is a
masterfully witty use of irony and sarcasm.
Before bringing the proposal to a close, Swift interposes a most unsarcastic statement. It
reads:
"Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, till he hath at
least some glimpse of hope that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put
them into practice (Norton 2478, fourth paragraph)."

Swift had previously made several suggestions in other writings as to how to really solve
some of the problems mentioned in A Modest Proposal, and this statement is in reference
to the fact that none of these suggestions had been taken seriously (Norton 2478, footnote
#6).
In closing, there can be no doubt that the satire employed in Jonathan's Swift's A Modest
Proposal is cutting wit at its finest. The sarcastic comparisons and ironic exaggerations,
along with the skillfully witty language, add a stinging overtone to his writing that
imprints itself upon the minds of his readers in a manner such that it cannot be forgotten.
Sarcasm can be a very sharp sword indeed, and writers such as Jonathan Swift wield it
expertly. His satirical prowess is an example for the ages.
by Sam Awa

There is no doubt that "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift portrays the character and
spirit of the Neoclassical Period in English literature. This short essay will therefore
attempt to highlight features of neoclassical period in the article.

One, It should be noted that one of the major genres of literature of the Neoclassical
Period was the satire. There are different levels of satire embedded in the work. There are
satirical attacks on the political and religious institutions of the then English and Irish
societies. The major thrust of the proposal itself is centered on the political institutions or
the government who cannot curb the rapid growth of poverty and the excesses of the rich
landlords who feed fat on the impoverished conditions of their poor tenants. Swift
therefore proposes that the children of the poor tenants should be sold to the rich
landlords for their delicacies.

Two, since there was a general distrust in innovation, writers of the Neoclassical Period
dwelt on the imitation of the classical works. We see this lack of ingenuity which paves
way to imitation in "A Modest Proposal". True to this style, Swift imitates the biting
satire of the popular Roman satirist, Juvenal to correct the ills in his society.

Again, one of the general tenets of the neoclassicists was that the work of art must be
capable of rendering both pleasure and instruction. There is no doubt that as a satire, "A
Modest Proposal instructs us in a very pleasurable manner.

Furthermore, one of the temperaments of the neoclassical works was that they centered
on man in relation to his universal experience and the society. For this reason, in "A
Modest Proposal" Swift carefully mocks at the human habits and attitudes and the
institutions that form them. He also mocks at the irrationality of man and the greedy and
the oppressive tendencies of man.

He also mocks at colonialism which is a tool of oppression and religion which has
divided the people rather than uniting them. It should be noted that at the time when the
article was written, Ireland was a vassal colony of England. In other words, "A Modest
Proposal" is a satire on man and this subject is in consonance with the temperament of
the Neoclassical Period.

Another temperament of the neoclassical period portrayed in "A Modest proposal" is the
vanity and idleness of the 18th Century English society. Ironically, what Swift seems to
be saying is that it is a sheer vanity that makes a nation rise up to "eat" another nation. So,
he offers a modest proposal where this action can then be enacted physically.

In Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal," many trivial solutions as well as one central
concept for Ireland's plague-like famine are introduced to the reader. The main argument
states that a possible solution for the food crisis would be to dine on the lower-class
children of the Irish society, who are doomed to a life of begging, stealing, famine and
unemployment. Although this proposal is sure to stir emotions, the idea is strictly
presented in a systematic and logical fashion as opposed to an emotional and moral
method. One negative aspect about Swift's essay is that he is vague in describing whether
his "proposal" is all that "modest" or to be taken literally. "A Modest Proposal" has
equilibrium of effective and ineffective literary techniques that will at times captivate the
reader and at others catch them off guard. However, he presents credible evidence as to
why the people of Ireland should resort to cannibalism which Swift does consider a last
resort to correct the food shortage, begging and crime.

Overall, Swift's essay is meant to be taken literally, which in turn shows the critical
nature of the epidemic that has overwhelmed Ireland. Swift uses the term "support" (299)
to describe what his intentions are though it is somewhat masked by literary road-blocks.
There are two major flaws in Swift's approach that could possibly cause his readers to
lose sight of the problem and focus on the disgusting nature of the solution. His suggested
culinary techniques, for example, are vulgar and unwarranted. If anything, discussing
methods to cook children can only push readers away from accepting a solution which
could be necessary because of the intensity and duration of the issue. Whether this
strategy was intended or not, Swifts credibility or ethos is respectively weakened do to
the graphic nature and awkward transition into such a provocative topic.
In addition to his ineffective use of vulgarity, Swift resorts to discrimination by class, age
and gender. Although Ireland has different roles for women that other regions and
cultures may or may not be familiar or comfortable with, the obligations and expectations
of females mirror primitive ideals and show a general lack of respect for females' status
in society. Swift makes it seem as if women are the main or sole cause of the nutrition
deprivation in Ireland. Swift states: "[C]rowded with beggars of the female-sex, followed
by three, four or six children all importuning every passenger

for alms" (298). This generalization seems to imply that all women and children are
beggars. In addition to sexism, Swift is clearly biased by his status as an upper or middle-
upper class citizen. He attempts to inform the reader that he will not benefit from this
proposal because he cannot sell his children because of their age and because his wife is
past childbearing (Swift 304). However, he will in fact benefit from his own proposal
because his children will not be exterminated and he will gain from the cheap price of
"delicious" (300) meat due to his class in society. This disrespect regarding age, gender,
and class, leads to yet another barrier that readers have to cross and disregard if they hope
to fully understand and except the proposal.

In a similar fashion, Swift either has a lack of respect or is simply ignorant (for the most
part) to the emotional repercussions of the publication. Although the audience(s) are
consisted of people who will more than likely not be affected in a negative manner by
this proposals implementation, those readers must still see the lack of compassion for
human life through the systematic/one sided style of writing. Some words and sentences
(all references to children) that show a lack of emotional consideration include:
"[S]tewed, roasted, baked or boiled" (300), "bastard" (299), "devoured" (300), "carcass"
(300), and [D]ress them hot from the knife as we do roasting pigs" (301). Although his
language is delicate through most of the essay, these particular references are graphic and
superfluous. Therefore Swifts lack of using pathos will be yet another tool that hinders
his overall effectiveness.
However, there are positive and effective aspects in Swift's essay. One of those
characteristics is his use of language. To effectively communicate his proposal to two
separate audiences, Swift uses intelligent structure, wording and format which appeals to
the upper-royalty class but doesn't overwhelm the upper-resident class with too much
literary complexity. Likewise, his tone is very effective in promoting his sincerity and
grave acceptance with the only feasible solution. Swift professes "Imaturely weight the
several schemes" and "I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least
personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work" (304). This suggests
that he is sincere in his proposal and even recognizes the difficulty and reluctance to the
implementation of such a plan.

Swift is not only sincere but steadfast and confident in his proposal. He is so confident, as
a matter of fact, that he states "I can think of no one objection that will possibly be raised
against this proposal" (303). Anyone who reads his essay can easily produce a list of
many objections both ethically and physically. Possible objections that Swift does not
address include: which children or characteristics determine the few who remain alive,
how can one possibly kill their own child or someone else's, how and who would
physically go about the process of killing these children, how would such a poor country
pay for the extermination, how do laws and this mass murder coincide, will a miniscule
population solve the famine, and will nutrition for the few who live overweigh the grief
and/or remorse caused by the slaughter? If readers recognize that Swift is disregarding or
not utilizing ample time to consider opposing viewpoints, then the overall effectiveness
and credibility of the essay and author are minimal.

Among the writing characteristics that Swift uses well, logos and evidence are the most
predominant. It is clear that there are at least six reasons as to why his proposal would be
a success and how it would positively affect the country and its people (Swift 302). In
addition to outlining his reasons for expecting an effective strategy, Swift has many
unnamed friends that he uses in order to reinforce his argument and its possible successes
by presenting that they agree with the outlined proposal and can even offer advice as to
take the plan a few steps farther. With all of the reinforcing evidence, Swift's use of logos
greatly helps the essay that was damaged by other misleading literary techniques.
Beyond the literary mistakes that Swift made because of his compassion for his country
and disgust for what it is declining to, the essay stands as at balance between effective
and ineffective. However, by unveiling this issue, Swift has communicated to the people
who are ignoring the issue and, by no coincidence, are the very same people who can
correct the problem. It is clear that no sane person could possibly present such a plan
unless under such extreme circumstances as those presented in "A Modest Proposal."
Regardless of whether the proposal is implemented, the greater picture is that the problem
is now evermore prevalent which could provoke the appropriate people to discuss the
seriousness of the issue, which could lead to an alternative solution of a less grave nature.