The Narrator in A Modest Proposal begins by first walking the reader down the streets of Dublin, Ireland, to illustrate the disheartening conditions of the Irish people and the burden they induce upon the Commonwealth. He appears to be a logical and educated man, who for many years has studied the problem and has come up with a plan to solve the overpopulation, and thus ending the economic woes of the country as well. His plan, though not traditional, would not be "confined to provide only for the children of pr

Maynard Mack. New York: W*W* Norton & Company, 1995. 483-489

Swift, Jonathan. A Modest Proposal. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed.

Encyclopaedia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article.html.

ofessed beggars, [. . .] shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain age [. . .] who demand our charity in the streets" (483). What proposal, the reader asks, could possibly be so beneficial to the people of means and all the children and residents of Ireland and England and could be implemented so easily and had never been thought of before? The answer is child cannibalism!

The Narrator, knowing the reader is in disbelief at this time, refers to a newborn baby being "dropped from its dam" (483), and even makes calculations as to the number of infants annually that can "contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands" (484), to bring the reader back to the pr

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 628
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)