Summary "A Modest Proposal" is a satirical essay written by Jonathan Swift to mock and criticize the degradation of Ireland's society during a period of economic decline. ... Analysis During the late seventeenth century, Ireland was placed into a state of economic and social decline. ... Disgusted by the backwards state of Ireland and its social classes, author Jonathan Swift constructs a ridiculous proposal in his satirical essay "A Modest Proposal". ... In his essay "A Modest Proposal", Swift proposes an irrational solution to Ireland's problems, which...

• Word Count: 965
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In "A Modest Proposal," Jonathan Swift presents a literary work that attacks the vices of the English Protestants, Irish politicians, and even the naivety of the Irish themselves. ... By the use of Swift's figure of speech, satire, and intricate details in "A Modest Proposal," he writes of unreal remedies to the real problems that Ireland possesses as a whole. The central argument in A Modest Proposal is his proposal to the poor of Ireland to halt themselves from being a burden on their country and its families by subversively replacing their actions with that of his. ... The most assert...

• Word Count: 877
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Jonathan Swift, author of "A Modest Proposal," takes advantage of the overlooked pamphlets, and constructs a ridiculous proposal. ... He also states that his proposal would make the babies "beneficial to the public". ... In "A Modest Proposal", Swift effectively uses insincerity, sarcasm, and rhetorical exaggeration to reveal his annoyance of politicians, papists, and overall citizens of poverty-stricken Ireland in the late seventeenth century. ... Jonathan Swift not only uses rhetoric to dehumanize the children throughout the proposal, but he engages his sarcasti...

• Word Count: 681
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal," Swift argues that the Irish might improve their national economy and poverty if they sell their children as food for those who are well to do. ... One of the rhetorical devices used by Jonathan Swift in "A Modest Proposal" was irony. ... Therefore, the use of irony in "A Modest Proposal" was to show that since the wrong or complete opposite idea was put up, everyone should understand that none of what is being suggested should actually be taken literally. ... At this point of Swift's "modest proposal," ...

• Word Count: 842
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate