Swift Modest Proposal

In his biting political satire called "A Modest Proposal," Johnathan Swift seeks to create empathy for the poor through his ironic portrayal of the children of Irish beggars as commodities that can be regulated and even eaten. He is able to poke fun at the dehumanization of the multitudes of poor people in Ireland by ironically commenting on what he sees as an extension of the current situation. Swift's essay seeks to comment on the terrible condition of starvation that a huge portion of Ireland has been forced into, and the inane rationalizations that the rich are quick to submit in order to justify the economic inequality. He is able to highlight the absurdity of these attempted explanations by presenting cannibalism as a logical (although not particularly valid or sound), mathematically calculated alternative to the current situation. In doing so Swift is able to shock the readers into defending the poor. Through his emotionless tones and clever diction, Swift is seeks to stir up the readers' feelings of indignation and compassion and thus help remind them that people are human beings and deserve to be treated as such, and not treated as figures in mathematical equations or pieces of meat. He begins by sucking the readers in through addressing a very real problem; the proliferation of beggers accompanied by malnourished children. He mentions the "deplorable state of the kingdom" where young children's futures are so limited that they will either turn thieves for want of work" or "sell themselves" into slavery. As soon as swift has gained the readers' attention he switches into his ironic, methodical mode. He begins to attempt to appeal to authority through his mention of having "turned (his) thoughts for many years upon this important subject. Before even mentioning what his intended proposal is, swift begins to speak in terms of computations and statistics and use diction to give the poor a sub-human quality in order to divert the attention from the horrific nature of what he is about to propose. Swift first hints that peasants are being treated as less than human by referring to a newborn baby as being "dropped from its dam." He then begins to refer t owives as not mothers, but "breeders. After having almost entirely erased the human element of the famine, he then inductively introduces his gruesome proposal; child cannibalism. At this point, Swift has already subtly illustrated the gravity of Ireland's current condition by implying that by treating the "breeders" like animals, he is in fact improving their lifestyle, for the voluntary abortions that these women are forced to commit " would move tears and pity to the most savage and inhuman beast." His use of diction relating to livestock as well as his cold, calculated tones and constant appeals to foreign authority mirror and comment upon the elite's absurb rationalization for their abuse and exploition of the dredges of society. He constantly likens beggers to animals, even comparing children to "sheep, black cattle or swine" and even speaking of them interms of "fore and hind quarter"s. His tone is so disturbingly uninvolved and methodical that he is able to calculate exactly how many meals a baby will serve and even pictures cannibalism as a socially acceptable occurrence when "entertaining friends." Throughout the piece Swift constantly seeks to jusify his proposal by mentioning the suggestions he has received from his influential friends in foreign countries. This illustrates that the narrator's mind is even farther removed from the immediate crisis and famine. As people read through the passage, Swift is able to sneakily encourage people to question the authority of their elitist leadership. As he continues writing Swift uses a constant barrage of ironic juxtapostions of ideas and sarcastic comments to convey the sheer ludicressness of the narrator's arguement.
Swift's satirical purposes first become readily apparent when he first mentions landlords. By stating that the landlords have already figuratively begun to devour the adults, he sarcastically asserts that they might as well eat the children while they are at it. Then he makes the absurd comment that he is "not in the least bit pained" about the issue of the starving, diseased and elderly beggers because they "every day daying and rotting cold and famine filth and vermin."
He seeks to cause controversy by asserting that babies could even be eaten at Christenings.
These types of comments illustrate the disconnect between his methodical stream of "logic" and the glaring injustices that the narrator's thought process simply does not appear seem to pick up on. After having done all this, he has most likely alienated most readers to the point of indignation. He has written pages worth of commentaries and calculations on the benefits of eating "infant's flesh," so by the time he mentions his true solutions he has, often without their knowledge of it, coaxed even the most hardened and jaded reader to his side. He very intelligently prefaces his own viewpoints with the clause "I can think of no one objection that will possibly be raised against this proposal." Swift really knows that just the opposite must is true. In fact he predicts that almost all readers cannot help but become appalled by horrendous nature of this proposal. He recognizes that, at this point, most readers will be very open to other suggestions other than feasting on the flesh of babies. Now, only after having used the most extreme shock shock tactics is Swift able to reach his audience with his true suggestions. At this point he juxtaposes his very logical solutions with his proposal, which serves as a metaphor for the rich's exploitation (feasting on) the poor. Through his use of satire and irony, Swuft's writing reaches out to the readers to expose curroption and exploitation. Johnathan Swift is able to express his true voice and win the readers support while saying the exact opposite of what he truly means. He is able to toy with the emotions of the readers to the point where they are so shocked by and eager to disagree with his proposition that they find themselves more receptive to his true thinking.