1. “Industrial Revolution Provides Millions Of Out-Of-Work Children With Jobs”
Read the article silently. Then consider the following questions:
What is the object of satire?
What strategies does the writer employ?

2. Jonathan Swift - “A modest proposal” an interactive reading experience
Open books to page 618
Read the Subtitle:
“For preventing the children of poor people from being a burden to their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the public”
(ON YOUR HANDOUT) 1: What connection can you find to the Onion article “Industrial Revolution”?

3. Paragraph 1 What does the speaker find "melancholy" in Ireland?
Note the interesting distinction in the first line. Does the speaker finds it depressing that such impoverished people exist? Or does he find it depressing to see such people? Do you think the speaker's sympathies are with the suffering lower class? Or with the poor rich class that has to look at them everyday?

4. 4-7
4. Look closely at paragraphs 4, 6, and 7, and study how the appeals to logic are put in mathematical and economic terms. Underline those words and phrases.

5. Does the essay merely function as a satirical attack
Does the essay merely function as a satirical attack? Does Swift ever present any serious proposals for improving conditions? If so, where?

6. A clear difference exists between Swift and the persona who makes this proposal.  Characterize the proposer. 

7. Is Swift still Current?
gastronomics-of-cannibalism

8. Think about it…
What topics can you think of for some modern "modest" proposals?