A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift Book Analysis

📌Category: Books
📌Words: 578
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 14 March 2022

What is the reason why tabloid articles are read by many, even though they are often unreliable? The reason is because tabloid articles are created to entertain by using exaggeration and controversy (BBC, 2014). In A Modest Proposal, written in 1729 by Jonathan Swift, the author uses black humour to make the reader feel uncomfortable and guilty about being entertained by his proposal. 

Jonathan Swift portrays his words as uncomfortable in a variety of different ways. The first being his choice of words. On page 32 of A Modest Proposal, the author announces women as the ‘female sex’ and their children as ‘helpless infants’. Moreover, the Swift separates those living in poverty by stating ‘these mothers.’ Furthermore, the author makes a distinguishment between the public of Ireland and of the United Kingdom by making it seem they are currently not useful: ‘… making this a cheap and easy method for making these Children useful Members of the common-wealth’ (page 32, A Modest Proposal). The author’s plan to make the children useful only increases his uncomfortable word choice: his plan is to eat the children who will grow up to be ‘beggars’ (page 32, A Modest Proposal). The author compares children to pig meat, by stating how children can be consumed in a similar way pig meat is prepared (page 34, A Modest Proposal). 

The author of A Modest Proposal uses unpopular language because Swift wants the reader to maintain interested in his proposal. To accomplish this, Swift carefully explains what he means by writing words like ‘seasoned flesh’ and ‘fat young children’ (page 34, A Modest Proposal). Consequently, the reader maintains interested in Swift’s proposal (Marcia Hoeck, how to grab your readers attention, 2021). Secondly, the author makes use of exaggeration to display the poverty in Ireland. An example of exaggeration is when Swift explains the benefits of eating children – instead of only stating they can be consumed, the author adds that they can be ‘roasted, ‘stewed’, ‘baked’ or ‘boiled’ (page 36, A Modest Proposal). By making use of exaggeration and uncomfortable words, the author forces the reader to decipher his actual purpose of the proposal: ‘An ironic reading is figured beneath the surface, in the structure of the situation, and we readers are expected to decipher this.’ (Outside source, page 8). 

Jonathan Swift’s portrayed humour is perceived as entertainment because of his proposal of eating children to eliminate the economic problems in Ireland. His plan is cannibalism, which is not openly talked about nor accepted. Therefore, is perceived as secretly interesting and entertaining (Michael Jacobs, how taboos are entertaining to discuss). However, by use of satire, the reader feels ‘guilty’ by being entertained by A Modest Proposal because, as one deciphers the actual message Swift tries to get across, the reader is confronted by the fact that the economic hardship Ireland faces, is the readers fault: ‘Unless we are prepared to follow the Proposer into the land of self-righteous moral lunacy, we are confronted again with our complicity in the situation and with the necessity of doing some- thing significant for the ‘publick Good.’ So we leave the text laughing at the Proposer, but it is bitter and uneasy laughter, because it is also turned on ourselves’ (outside source, page 18). 

In A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift uses different words as ‘female sex’ and ‘roasted children’ and by separating the people of Ireland and the people of England to make the reader feel uncomfortable by his proposal. Furthermore, the authors use of irony is deciphered by Swift’s heavy use of exaggeration. Thirdly, the reader is entertained by Swift because his proposal is a taboo. However, the reader leaves the text with a ‘bitter’ and ‘uneasy laughter’ because one recognises that Swift blames the reader for the economic hardship in Ireland.

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