A Modest Proposal

Literary Analysis

By J--- -----------

J--- -----------
Mr. H-----
Period 6
2 May 2011
Jonathan Swift’s Use of Satire and Exaggeration Satire is a form of literature in which an author tries to demonstrate his or her point of view by ridiculing. The author uses heavy irony and sarcasm in order to criticize a social issue. A perfect example of a work of satire is Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal. In this satirical essay, Jonathan Swift attacks on the issue of the Irish poverty in the 1700s. The essay sarcastically suggests that Ireland’s social and economic problems would be quickly solved by putting the children of impoverished Irish families on the food market. Through heavy exaggeration, Jonathan …show more content…

He wants people to keep these values, so he writes certain things that accuse his audience of already being without these values. For example, he states that "no gentleman would repine to give ten shillings for the carcass of a good fat child" (804). He is actually trying to convince the reader that no one should ever be as corrupted enough as to do such an act. By reading an outrageous plan, the reader understands that the Irish shouldn’t be the ones responsible for fixing their own problems. the reader also understands through reading this outrageous plan that the Irish have no real options as to fixing their problems, and that the only people that can really do anything about it are the people that caused the problem in the first place, which are the English landlords. He also portrays the tragedy that the English, who hold the fate of a country's fragile population and economy in their hands, won't even try to come up with an idea better than the one he proposed. By showing a solution that isn't serious, Swift wants his audience to desire a solution that actually is serious. He is hoping to push the reader to action, for example by saying that he "can think of no one objection that will possibly be raised against this proposal" (808). All in