Literary Critique of A Modest Proposal

A detailed Summary of Literary Critique of A Modest Proposal

In very simple terms, A Modest Proposal is a satire of the social and economic events in Ireland. It was written in the early eighteenth century in an attempt to shame England and to shock Ireland. Jonathan Swift lived in an Ireland which was a colony, politically, militarily, and economically dependent on England. England was happy to keep things as they were to keep Ireland weak. The result was an overpopulated and poor Ireland. Swift offers a solution for the problems of Ireland in a practical manner. Through his ironic prose, Swift suggests one solution for both the problem of overpopulation and the growing numbers of starving people. The idea is to breed the children of Ireland for food and then sale the carcasses to England to improve Ireland's

By mentioning his clearly more rational ideas that would have helped Ireland rectify things, Swift pokes fun of his fellow Irishmen. In his proposal he asks that no one talk of these ideas unless there is an attempt to put them into practice. He speaks of the poverty and terrible life conditions of his fellow Irish. The oppressed, ignorant and hungry peasants that are desperate for any type of salvation even though this might require the sacrificing of their young, "first ask the parents of these mortals, whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food at a year old." After all these peasants were so desperate that they were already murdering their bastard children to avoid the expense. He uses shock value to try and open their eyes.

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Some common words found in the essay are:
Modest Proposal, Ireland Swift, Jonathan Swift, Irish Parliament, England England, modest proposal, peasants desperate, jonathan swift,

Approximate Word count = 538
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Arts

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