1. Jonathan Swift and “A Modest Proposal”

4. Ireland was under the control of England for close to 500 years and was denied union with England when Scotland received it in As a result, Ireland continued to suffer under trade restrictions and lack of resources.
The ruling class were usually Protestants
Many of them were not born in Ireland, nor did they live there permanently
If the laborers lost their work, there would always be other poor people to take it up
There was no social security system and starvation was as common as in the Third World today

5. “The Age of Reason” Swift wrote his satires during
In Europe in the late 17th to end of the 18th century, there was a general intellectual and literary movement known as the enlightenment.
The movement is characterized by Rationalism – a philosophy that emphasized the role of reason rather than sensory experience or faith in answering basic questions of human existence.
Concern regarding human existence led to
a need to address social problems.
This movement is also known as the Neoclassical Age.

7. This situation led Swift to write his satirical essay.
Jonathan Swift faced such a situation in the late 1720’s when starvation was widespread in Ireland during a time when England’s policies kept the Irish poor.
This situation led Swift to write his satirical essay.
Irish harvests had been meager for years & Farmers couldn’t pay the rent demanded by their English landlords.
Beggars and starving children filled the streets
Swift knew that in living memory, Irish people had been driven to cannibalism

8. Sometimes satire is the most powerful tool
During this time, many writers wrote and published pamphlets with proposals to solve the economic problems in Ireland.
Swift tried to get his point across in more conventional essays but was largely ignored.
He then parodied the pamphlet style and method and wrote a shocking satire that offered an outrageous “solution” to the problem of famine.
It wasn't until he wrote A Modest Proposal and used pamphlets to distribute it widely, that it received any notice.
Sometimes satire is the most powerful tool

9. I want to make people think of solutions.
I am appalled by the misery in Ireland and want to capture the audience whose indifference I believe is to blame for the situation.
I want to make people think of solutions.

10. Rhetoric is the Art of Persuasion.
It is the effort on the part of the speaker or writer to take full advantage of the communication process in order to bring about a change of thinking or acting on the part of the listener or reader. Swift is a master of Rhetoric.
Voice/persona: The “voice” comes from the narrator in a piece of writing. The voice is not necessarily the writer – he/she may create a persona to put forth opinions and ideas opposite to the writer’s personal opinions.

11. The Image of the Speaker
The speaker may attempt to reflect a variety of images of self in order to gain a positive or credible image. Some possible categories may be:
Well Educated
Sincere
Just plain folks
Well organized
Concerned Citizen
Common sense
Humorous & witty
Altruistic

12. to elicit a range of responses.
A Reader’s Response
The reader or listener responds to various ways that the message is styled
to elicit a range of responses.
The speaker or writer manipulates language in order to attract attention.
Some Techniques are:
Rhetorical questions, figures of speech, repetition, allusion, sentence variety, striking imagery
With persuasive writing, the writer must also ANTICIPATE OPPOSING POINTS OF VIEW by addressing the COUNTERARGUMENT.
Why is this important?
If the speaker or writer acknowledges that there are opposing arguments and answers them, then the reader or listener will be more convinced of the argument.

13. Watch for these persuasive techniques:
“A Modest Proposal” is a classic example of persuasive writing
used for the purpose of satire.
Watch for these persuasive techniques:
1. LOGICAL APPEALS use evidence such as facts or statistics to support a position.
2. EMOTIONAL APPEALS use words that arouse strong feelings. Feelings could include:
Joy Pride Fear Greed Hatred Pity
Love Respect Despair Anger Sadness Hope
Selflessness Shame Envy Faith Disdain
3. ETHICAL APPEALS establish the writer’s sincerity and qualifications.

14. What is Swift satirizing in A Modest Proposal?
In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift satirizes the English landlords with outrageous humor, proposing that Irish infants be sold as food at age one, when they are plump and healthy, to give the Irish a new source of income and the English a new food product to bolster their economy and eliminate a social problem. He is clearly mocking the wealthy.
Few people who read Swift’s “Modest Proposal” ever forget it because it touches such deep psychic nerves, it illustrates the satirist’s major tool, which is playing with the emotions of readers or listeners.

15. With a masterful use of rhetorical (persuasive) devices, Swift, through the use of a persona sets out his proposal:
Part 1: Paragraphs 1-7
Describes the situation in Ireland and suggests solutions for the problem – expects the proposal to solve the problem of poor children beggars.
Part 2: Paragraphs 8-19
Details his proposal
Part 3: Paragraphs 20-28
Illustrates the advantages of his proposal
Part 4: Paragraphs 29-33
Addresses opposing points of view

16. What are the present situations in Ireland?
Vivid Imagery describes the very real poverty of the people of Ireland. Swift ‘hooks’ the reader by referencing the common sight of poor female beggars with their children. People in Ireland lack of national loyalty, the English government is devouring Ireland.
What is Swift’s attitude toward the beggars he describes in the opening paragraph?
Through Swift’s comments – how the children do not work or support society – he begins to work into his biting satire regarding ineptitude of the Irish.

17. What is the effect of his choice of diction?
Notice the narrator’s defense for his own proposal and the statistical data. What is the purpose of including so many statistics?
Initially, Swift’s argument seems to make sense. He speaks out against abortion infanticide but then abruptly refers to women as ‘breeders’.
What is the effect of his choice of diction?
Referring to women as ‘breeders’ compares the impoverished women to animals – a comparison Swift continues later in the essay by suggesting that people should eat children in order to save pigs.
His satire exemplifies how society views the poor during that time: they are less than animals.

18. What is the narrator’s proposal? Do you think that it is modest?
Paragraph10: 120,000 children, among which 20,000 reserved for breed, only ¼ to be males; the remaining 100,000 be offered in sale.
The plump and fat children will be good for feeding
and clothing.
Swift believed that people would find the consumption of children abhorrent, and as a result, the reader would try to find the true purpose behind the proposal.
He calls attention to the self-degradation of the nation.
He also frames a critique of the Irish-Catholic who regard marriage largely as a union to breed.

19. The rich will profit from the poor paying their debts and the national economy will thrive.
The poorer will receive money from the sales of their infants.
This food would bring great custom to taverns & the aristocracy will have a delicacy to enjoy.
Marriage and birth will be encouraged.
Men will be discouraged from beating their wives as they could miscarry.
Exports of meat will rise, since the Irish will be eating their children.

20. The speaker is a Protestant and a member of the Irish upper class.
While he professes sympathy for the plight of the poor Catholic population, he also holds a fairly contemptuous opinion of them.
He takes great pains to enumerate the advantages of his proposed project for the wealthy, who would presumably be called upon to implement it.
Yet Swift's irony implicates this moneyed class for their monetary greed, their personal indulgence, their unflagging attention to their own self-interest, and their indifference to the state of the poor and the state of the nation as a whole.
Paragraph 33
What is the narrator’s attitude in saying that “I have no children by which I can propose to get a single penny, the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past childbearing”?

21. Some Final Thoughts
What image of Swift and/or the persona emerges after reading
“A Modest Proposal”?
Is Swift’s message clear and worthwhile?
Does the work show a balance of reason (logos) and emotion (pathos)?