Jonathan Swift: A Modest Proposal

1. “A Modest Proposal” is an ironic essay: the author deliberately writes what he does not mean.  What is the real thesis?  Is there more than one?
  

"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."

 

2. Look closely at paragraphs 4, 6, and 7, and study how the appeals to logic are put in mathematical and economic terms.  Underline those words and phrases.

"The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couples who are able to maintain their own children"

 

"There only remains one hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents annually born"

 

"hundred and twenty thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one-fourth part to be males"

 

3. When does the reader begin to realize that the essay is ironic?  Before or after the actual proposal is made in paragraph 10?

when he started to talk about giving up kids 

   

4. Which groups of people are singled out as special targets for Swifts’ attack?  Are the Irish presented completely as victims, or are they also to blame?

Irish poor people are victims while irish rich people are targets.

to explain his true thoughts

 

 

7. The character proposing the measure uses various techniques to convince. These include statistics and appeals to the authority of prominent figures. Can you spot any others? Have you done any sort of "labor" job? Did you resist your employer and, if you did, what forms did your resistance take?  Is there a strong link between humor, anger, or other emotional states and resistance? Can you give examples of things you did to vent frustration (particularly if they were funny?)

i have no done any sort of "labor" work in my life. I think there is a strong link between humor, anger and other emotional states and resistance. I think there are many ways to handl frustration and it all depends on the person that takes the action. i vent my frustration by reading, because that is when my mind is in another world and not have to worry about the issues in the real world.

 

 

8. If you were, conversely, given the job of marketing babies, do you think it could be done, and how? We have a tradition, in English, of keeping the French names for the meats of animals eaten primarily by the rich. Would the first step be calling baby meat something French? Would it be by processing the baby to the point of non-recognition?

I would not be able to market the babies, because scoeity would never agree to that. Also you would be eating your own kin and that is just weird. If it was required then i would say market it by processing the baby to th point of non-recognition, just like hot dogs and sausages. Most people know what is in there, but they dont want to face the fact and continues to eat it.