A satire is a literary work in which human foolishness and vice are criticized.

Satire employs humor and wit to ridicule human institutions or humanity itself, in order that they might be remodeled or improved (Random House). A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift is a prime example of a satire. Throughout the piece it is difficult to know exactly whom and what Swift is criticizing. This is because Swift criticizes three groups of people and uses metaphors to make the satire work. Swift ridicules the English for economically oppressing the Irish, the Irish for being passive and allowing the English to oppress them, and the reader of the piece for representing all the wrong doings in society. Many of the images that Swift paints for the reader are images that he witnessed firsthand while he was in Ireland. He was able to feel what the people were going through and he put that feeling into his work.

The main group of people that Jonathan Swift indicts is the English. Swift blames the English for creating the environment that the Irish are living in. He witnessed the Irish people living in poverty while their absentee landlords were acquiring great wealth. "The

The cruelty of the text continues on throughout the quote. This reader is shocked by the violence that is created by the economic situation. It makes the landlords appear as if they are actually devouring their tenants rather than protecting them.

"I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom a very great additional grievance; 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" (Swift).

Jonathan Swift has a knack for making others feel uncomfortable. In much of his work he was able to make the readers uneasy. Using his wittiness and creativeness, Swift makes his readers face their "moral inadequacies" (Norton). "He actually compels us to enjoy the process of being brought to such awareness" (Norton). The literary gifts that Swift has make him an effective satirical writer. He has a way of making the most extreme statements appear disguised in the abstraction of metaphor.

3. Webster's College Dictionary, 3rd ed. (New York: Random House, 1995) 1193.

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Approximate Word count = 1496
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)