In a Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift, the main objective was to draw attention to the plight of the Irish people and motivate readers to find a workable solution. Swift shows the readers his proposal mainly through irony. Irony can be defined as expressing the opposite of what is meant. This is a great technique of the sense of humor used in the proposal and in Swift.
One of the voices that are present throughout the story is that of irony. The story itself is ironic since no one can take Swifts proposal seriously. This irony is clearly demonstrated at the end of the story; Swift makes it clear that this proposal would not affect him since his children were grown and his wife unable to have any more children. It would be rather absurd to think that a rational man would want to both propose this and partake in the eating of another human being. Therefore, before an canalization can continue, one has to make the assumption that this is
even entire paragraphs to find a deeper hidden meaning in this story. Yet,
One can spend many hours trying to analyze the words, the sentences and
Also, one could argue that the whole context of the story must be taken into account. First of all, one must take into account the environment in which the story was written. During this time period, the beggars that Swift describes could not read, much less afford to buy one of Swifts works. Swift was well aware that his audience was the well-to-do upper class. He could write proposal like this knowing that there would be no repercussions since the upper class would treat this as a comedy. Actually, the lower class could have revolted fearing that their children were in danger if they knew of the story. In effect, it is a combination of both propaganda and humor aimed for the educated audience. Secondly, if Swift did want to help the lower class, he would not have created an exemption fo
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