Johnathan Swift used satire in A Modest Proposal and Top of the Food Chain to prove his point. In A Modest Proposal he used exaggeration to show his readers how erroneous the English treated the Irish. Swift also used understatement in Top of the Food Chain, to cover himself and make a big problem seem small. Don't we all do that sometimes! .
In A Modest Proposal, Johnathan Swift exaggerates how the English treat the Irish so poorly. Swift believes that they treat the Irish as if they were food. "I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nourished is that at a yea old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, weather stewed, roasted, baked, or broiled- (Page 504, 3) He used exaggeration by comparing the Irish to food. He also used exaggeration to the greed, of the English. "Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flay the carcass; thy skin of which, artificially dressed; while make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen." (Page 504-505, 7) Swift exaggerates in his title, A Modest Proposal. "Modest" is far from being modest, it is more like arrogant. .
Moorehead 2.
Jonathan Swift makes understatement throughout Top of the Food Chain. He uses understatement to make a problem not seem as big as it is. He starts the short story off by using understatement by using the word little. "The thing is we have a little problem with the insect vector there- (Page 509, 1) He uses understatement when he compares DDT to Channel No. 5. "We might as well have been spraying Channel No. 5 for all the good it did. (Page 509, 1) Swift also uses under statement to prove that he's innocent. "But just because we banned it from the bird watching contingent and the hopheads down at the EPA, it doesn't necessarily follow that the rest of the world." (Page 509, 3) Swift also used understatement to the senator the people do not know anything about pest control.
