Wednesday, October 9, 2019
A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift Essay -- Jonathan Swift, A Modest Pr
Swift makes a bold claim to harnessing the sole fail proof method for reversing Irelandââ¬â¢s course of poverty turned famine. The proposal entails selling oneââ¬â¢s own children for consumption of food, thus placing food on the table for those who can afford, placing money into the mothers pocket, and allowing the would be needy childr... A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift Essay -- Jonathan Swift, A Modest Pr In the story ââ¬Å"A Modest Proposalâ⬠Swift spread many ideas throughout the essay. It was made to be seen that Swift did not care for children mainly because they placed burdens on their parents and they had no contribution to society. This was actually not true. Swift is trying to add value to these children and allow them to be better contributors to the rich people of Ireland and release burdens off their parents. ââ¬Å"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 ï ¬ nd out a fair, cheap and easy method of making these children sound and useful members of the commonwealth, would deserve so well of the publick, as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nationâ⬠(Swift 2). Swift most likely has some bad memories as a child or perhaps was treated differently as a child then the children of that time were. I say this because it is clear he dislikes, or perhaps not dislikes, but would like to better them for society. Swift feels they need to be more useful members for the commonwealth maybe because when he was a child he was forced to be of use. Swift als nd then served to the rich landowners is because he believes it will truly help the commonwealth of the nation, and will help the overpopulation issue. Swift obviously believes it is a ââ¬Å"win winâ⬠for the nation, the people, the parents, and the commonwealth of the nation. Swiftââ¬â¢s goal must have been to help the society as much as he could have in giving them his proposal. Swift wanted to help the social, political and economical problems that Ireland had, and really felt that if the country had used his proposal they could solve their problems. Jonathan Swiftââ¬â¢s proposal was a essay targeted at bettering the commonwealth of the nation of Ireland and allowing the kids to make a contribution to the nation. Swift cared for the children as well as he cared for the health of the nation and would have loved to see the nation flourish using the proposal he left behind. A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift Essay -- Jonathan Swift, A Modest Pr Contrary to the narratorââ¬â¢s belief that this method would decrease the theft, abortion, and murder rate of unwanted children, I would not be so afraid to say that this would be considered, if passed, nothing more than legitimate murder. This could also cause the demand on such meat to rise and the supply to run thin, causing an even greater degree of theft with the stealing of a personââ¬â¢s loved ones and murder. Richard B. Freeman, a Professor of Economics at Harvard University even mentioned this in his study called ââ¬Å"The Economics of Crimeâ⬠which in Cha... A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift Essay -- Jonathan Swift, A Modest Pr Swiftââ¬â¢s main purpose of ââ¬Å"A Modest Proposalâ⬠was to display the absurdity of the insensible acts that were being carried out by the Irish government. This essay did not actually comply with finding a solution to the problem in the country. He was actually attempting to show those of Ireland that this was the similar to what the government was allowing to occur. A famous quote that can be linked to this essay is as follows, ââ¬Å"The poor were getting poorer and the rich were getting richer.â⬠To refer to women, Swift uses the word ââ¬Ëbreeders.ââ¬â¢ They were treated as someone that furthered mankind, rather than a provider. If the reader wasnââ¬â¢t aware that Swift was making a mockery of Irelandââ¬â¢s political system, the reader could possibly become disgusted with ââ¬Å"A Modest Proposal.â⬠If one examines the actual content of ââ¬Å"A Modest Proposalâ⬠they can catch the tone of s the sense of resentment towards Roman Catholics. T hroughout the essay Roman Catholics are referred to as ââ¬Å"papists.â⬠In paragraph thirteen, Swift mentions that more Catholic babies are born nine months after Lent and will flood the market with infants. Later on, he says his proposal ââ¬Å"will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of papists among usâ⬠(869). From paragraph thirteen, the author reveals animosity towards papists by wanting to reduce the number of their children and therefore reducing the amount of Catholics. Also, another evaluation can be made by the fact that Jonathan Swift himself was an ordained Anglican priest (866). Since the ever-present conflict between Catholics and Protests existed, it makes it quite possible that the Catholic Church had an influence on Irelandââ¬â¢s economy at the time or so Swift leads the reader to believe.
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