A Modest Proposal Satire

A Modest Proposal Satire

The short story, "A Modest Proposal," written by Johnathan Swift, is anything but a modest proposal. Swift satirically proposes a compromise to rectify a burden of the Irish people. The nation's predicament is the children of the poor people being a hinderance to their parents and their country. The compromise is eating the infants to not only save food that would be needed for the kids but to give a larger amount of food to the poor people. Clearly this satirical essay is just that, satirical, but the way Swift delivers his proposition is very persuasive. Through his use of rhetorical devices such as tone and litotes he is able to emphasize his points, while at the same time he throws in a hefty amount of irony to keep the reader from thinking the piece is truthful and serious.



In order for the audience to not completely disregard the story, the author needs to put some realism into his writing. A way in which he achieves this is through an under exaggerated tone. Swift constant use of litotes builds this tone and helps make everything stay real. By making everything seem not so over the top, he is able to achieve a sense of normalcy in his writing. An example of one of these vast understatements is when he mentions how the women might find it, "Bordering upon cruelty." The very thought of murdering anything, let alone babies, is cruel. The most evident case of a litotes, though, is the title of the short story. "A Modest Proposal," is anything ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...Johnathan Swift satirically writes his manifesto to the people of Ireland to fix their hunger problem. His use of litotes and an all around understated tone lends itself useful to engaging readers. At the same time, Swift's evident use of irony, ranging from the title to the closing statements, helps to not estrange readers. All in all, the repulsive idea proposed by Swift completely goes against any practical ethos or logos, and hence creates a grand piece of

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