A Modest Proposal is a satirical essay written as a formal policy recommendation to address poverty and overpopulation in eighteenth-century Ireland. Swift adopts the persona of a detached social engineer who suggests that impoverished parents sell their infants as a luxury food source for the wealthy. The text uses mock-logic and economic statistics to argue that this practice would reduce the number of Catholics, lower crime rates, and improve the national economy. This grotesque central premise serves as a direct attack on the indifference of English landlords and the mechanical application of mercantilist theory to human suffering.
This document serves students of rhetoric and political history who wish to study the mechanics of irony and the use of a public persona. Readers gain an understanding of how parody can be used to highlight social injustice and the failure of government policy. By the end, a reader recognizes the difference between the narrator’s cold utilitarianism and the author’s underlying indignation regarding the treatment of the poor. It offers a blueprint for how to use extreme absurdity to expose flaws in rationalistic political discourse.
Deep and outward-looking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Deep Diver. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1729
- Language
- EN
