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A Modest Proposal
The narrator of the satirical essay "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift offers the ostensibly serious economic suggestion that poor Irish parents should fatten their babies for a year until they...
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A Modest Proposal
The narrator of this essay develops his plan to single-handedly solve the Irish famine problem through advancing a solution to the shortage of venison. He mentions how an American acquaintance he...
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A Modest Proposal
In keeping with the faux scientific style in which A Modest Proposal is written, Swift presents what he sees as the one major drawback to his scheme—depopulation—in coolly objective, disinterested...
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A Modest Proposal
After unveiling his shocking plan to slaughter "surplus" Irish children for food, Swift argues (tongue in cheek, of course) that it has six advantages. First, it would reduce the numbers of Irish...
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A Modest Proposal
In "A Modest Proposal," Swift identifies poverty in Ireland as a problem. Through a narrator, who is not Swift but Swift's creation of a clueless bean counter who sees poor people as widgets or...
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A Modest Proposal
First, Swift employs dramatic irony: this is when the audience or reader knows something that a character does not. Swift does not actually want anyone to eat babies; however, the speaker—a...
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A Modest Proposal
Pathos is emotional appeal, and Swift's narrator spends the opening paragraphs of "A Modest Proposal" painting a heart-rending picture of the plight of the Irish poor. The narrator appears quite...
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A Modest Proposal
"A Modest Proposal" offers a satirical solution to a real problem. The urgent need, therefore, is exactly what Swift says it is: the problem of poverty, and specifically child poverty, in Ireland....
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A Modest Proposal
Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal is a satirical essay which attacks contemporary attitudes in eighteenth-century England towards the poor and, specifically, towards the Irish. When the book was...
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A Modest Proposal
Your original question contained two questions. You are not allowed to ask multiple questions in enotes, so I have edited the second question and will focus on your first. Please remember to only...
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A Modest Proposal
Jonathan Swift wrote "A Modest Proposal" in an attempt to draw attention to the deplorable conditions in Ireland. He does spend more time and description talking about the effects of the crisis; he...
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A Modest Proposal
America had a mythical quality to Europeans of the early 18th Century, especially the ones who had never been there. It was a place where a penniless Irishman could go and make his fortune in the...
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A Modest Proposal
Part of the immense humour of this passage is the tone that the speaker uses to make his "modest" proposal. On a literal level the speaker's tone is earnest and straightforward. On the satirical...
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A Modest Proposal
Jonathan Swift’s satirical essay can be interpreted in two ways. One is to take at face value the “modest proposal” which the writer makes. The other is to look beneath the idea of that writer, who...
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A Modest Proposal
The speaker is a scientist presenting a learned discussion paper, the kind that would be put before the Royal Society, Great Britain's national academy of sciences. Swift was scathing of many of...
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A Modest Proposal
"A Modest Proposal" retains its relevance for multiple reasons. First, it is a very entertaining essay and a masterpiece of satire. To read Swift make his absurd case using facts, figures, and...
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A Modest Proposal
Swift has several targets in "A Modest Proposal." One is Great Britain. It was British rule that played a major role in creating the horrible conditions in Ireland referenced by Swift in the essay....
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A Modest Proposal
It is at paragraph eight that the reader would begin to realize that this essay is satirical. Up until this point, the narrator sounds like a completely reasonable and humane person, concerned with...
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A Modest Proposal
Swift's pamphlet addressed a few intended audiences: both the English who were buying up all the land in Ireland, and the Irish themselves. By the time he wrote "A Modest Proposal," the wealthy...
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A Modest Proposal
As any serious proposal to solve a problem does, "A Modest Proposal" includes a discussion of the commercial viability of raising Irish children for food and includes a number of calculations...
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A Modest Proposal
Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" is a renowned satirical essay in which Swift proposes that the poor children are eaten (an an effort to reduce the population and provide monetary income for...
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A Modest Proposal
Jonathan Swift's satirical essay "A Modest Proposal" is rife with hyperbole. The entire proposal itself is hyperbolic. A hyperbole is an extreme exaggeration that is used to emphasize an author's...
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A Modest Proposal
One example of irony is in the title: "A Modest Proposal." The narrator goes on to propose that the Irish sell their babies to the English as a food source so that the Irish can make a profit,...
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A Modest Proposal
Many readers of "A Modest Proposal" assume that Swift's primary target throughout the essay is the English for their callous mis-treatment of Ireland and the Irish, and the English are among...
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A Modest Proposal
Swift proposes that the children of the poor become a delicacy for the rich. The advantages to this, according to Swift, would be: 1) It will lessen the number of Catholics in Ireland, as more...
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A Modest Proposal
The speaker uses logos, or appeals to his readers' logic, in his arguments for eating babies. He offers his calculations that of 120,000 children, it would be appropriate to reserve 20,000 "for...
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A Modest Proposal
The first paragraph of "A Modest Proposal" presents a dire picture of the economic situation in Ireland in the early eighteenth century. The streets and doorways are crowded with beggars, many of...
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A Modest Proposal
The ethos, pathos and logos are persuasive appeals. Logos is the idea of a logical argument. I believe no Gentleman would repine to give Ten Shillings for the Carcass of a good fat Child, which,...
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A Modest Proposal
One of the strengths of Swift's satire is his relentless use of logos. Swift's narrator employs one statistic after another to demonstrate the efficacy of his "proposal." He points out that there...
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A Modest Proposal
I'm not sure what you mean by the style affecting the content. To me, the style certainly affects the tone of the essay and how effective it is. I think the style of the essay is very breezy and...
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A Modest Proposal
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift is a satirical piece on how to deal with the poor’s problems. Basically, “Swift suggests that impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling...
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A Modest Proposal
"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift is a prime example of satire. Satire is defined as "the use of humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule to expose and criticise people's stupidity and vices,...
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A Modest Proposal
Yes, absolutely! Think of the speaker as a character created by Swift rather than a representation of Swift himself, or Swift's opinions. The speaker proposes, in short, that the poor Irish sell...
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A Modest Proposal
As you said before in your question, Swift is not actually advocating for cannibalism as a solution for poverty, but at the same time, I think he is genuine when discussing the problem of poverty...
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A Modest Proposal
After stating the problem, Swift proposes his solution, which he ironically says “I hope will not be liable to the least objection.” He savagely remarks that the landlords of Ireland should be...
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A Modest Proposal
In his satirical pamphlet titled A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift calls attention to a number of social problems in the Ireland of his day. Such problems include the following: Poverty...
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A Modest Proposal
While it seems like the page number you reference is likely from a textbook/other collection that contains 'A Modest Proposal" and not from a version of the essay itself, there are two main...
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A Modest Proposal
All of Swift's appeals are, of course, tongue-in-cheek, designed to demonstrate that when it comes to formulation social policy, rationality must be informed by morality and humanity. Economically,...
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A Modest Proposal
It will help to get rid of Roman Catholics, who have lots of children. That way there will be more room for the Protestants. Poorer tenants will have something of value that can help pay their...
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A Modest Proposal
I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children. In his...
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A Modest Proposal
Jonathan Swift's essay "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen (Burden) to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick...
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A Modest Proposal
Since this satire proposes something totally outrageous as a solution to over-population and poverty (eating children as food), why not choose a modern day social or political problem and propose...
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A Modest Proposal
Swift's essay satirizes the easy acceptance of rational, "scientific" solutions to social problems in a number of ways. One way is to advocate a solution that, according to cold, rationalistic...
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A Modest Proposal
The theme of this satirical essay by Jonathan Swift is apparently social welfare. The fictional writer of “A Modest Proposal” (a character invented by Swift) claims to have found a solution for the...
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A Modest Proposal
The narrator or proposer of this text likely calls his proposal a "modest" one because he is completely unaware of how monstrous a thing it is that he proposes. One of the ways that Jonathan Swift,...
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A Modest Proposal
Sarcasm—or, as it is often called, verbal irony—is saying the opposite of what you think. When a person falls down while walking across the room, a sarcastic response is "Graceful!" or "Good job!"...
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A Modest Proposal
Your original question had to be edited as you are only allowed to ask one question, not multiple questions. Please remember to follow the rules of enotes in future. Exaggeration, or hyperbole as...
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A Modest Proposal
The topic of Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" is the dire poverty that gripped Ireland in the 1720s. His actual proposal begins like this: I have been assured...that a young healthy child well...
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A Modest Proposal
Swift's narrator portrays himself not necessarily as an expert (indeed, this is why he calls it a "modest proposal,") but as a rational, concerned reformer who has consulted a variety of experts in...
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A Modest Proposal
I am not to sure which specific parts of this excellent essay you are referring to. Do you mean the third and fourth paragraphs? Perhaps your copy of this essay is broken down to structure your...
