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A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

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A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift LITERARY FOCUS: VERBAL IRONY You use verbal irony whenever you say one thing but mean something completely different. When you speak, your tone of voice signals listeners that you don’t really mean what you are saying. Writers don’t have the option of using a sarcastic tone of voice to convey irony. Instead, they might make so many shocking or unbelievable statements that the reader can’t possibly miss the point. Swift’s essay is a classic example of verbal irony taken to the extreme. Isn’t It Ironic? Look at the following examples of verbal irony. Then, create your own example in the space provided. Situation Verbal Irony (What You Say) You trip and fall in front of a large “Aren’t I the picture of grace?” group of people, your books and you ask as you struggle to your papers flying everywhere. feet. You have a bad case of the flu. A You respond, “Never felt better!” friend visits and asks, “How are you?” READING SKILLS: RECOGNIZING PERSUASIVE TECHNIQUES “A Modest Proposal” is a type of persuasive writing called satire. Through satire, writers ridicule people or institutions in order to effect change. “A Modest Proposal” was written in 1729 to shock English society into an awareness of England’s unjust policies toward the Irish. In it, Swift uses the types of persuasive techniques listed below to convince the reader that Literary Skills England’s treatment of the Irish is heartless and immoral. Understand verbal irony. • Logical appeals: the use of facts or statistics to support a position. Reading Skills Copyright © by Holt, © by Copyright Winston. Rinehart and All rights reserved. • Emotional appeals: the use of words that stir up strong feelings. Recognize persuasive • Ethical appeals: the use of details that will convince readers that the techniques writer is fair and trustworthy. (logical, emotional, and ethical appeals). Use the Skill As you read the selection, highlight and identify the types of persuasive appeals used by Swift. Refer to the list above as a guide. A Modest Proposal 125 Jonathan Swift FOR PREVENTING THE CHILDREN OF POOR PEOPLE IN IRELAND FROM BEING A BURDEN TO THEIR PARENTS, AND FOR MAKING THEM BENEFICIAL TO THE PUBLIC BACKGROUND In the late 1720s, Ireland suffered from several years of poor harvests. Farmers had trouble paying the rents demanded by their English land- lords. Many children and adults were forced to beg or starve. Most of the money collected by the landlords was sent to England; very little was spent in Ireland on locally produced goods. Here, Swift pretends to be an economic planner who suggests a shocking solution to the problem. Watch for the sharp contrast between Swift’s direct, logical style and the outrageous proposal he describes. It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great 1 Melancholy, in line 1, means town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the “sad.” Using that knowledge, roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, paraphrase the first sentence. followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and impor- ved. tuning every passenger for an alms.2 These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling, to beg sustenance for their helpless infants, who, as they grow up either turn thieves for want3 of work, or leave their dear native country to fight for the 10 Pretender4 in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.5 1. this great town: Dublin. 2. importuning . alms: asking passersby for a handout. Holt, © by Copyright Winston. Rinehart and All rights reser 3. want n.: lack; need. sustenance (sus√t¥·n¥ns) n.: 4. the Pretender: James Edward (1688–1766), son of England’s last food or money to support life. Catholic king, the deposed James II (1633–1701); James Edward kept trying to gain the English throne. 5. sell . Barbadoes: go to the West Indies and work as indentured servants. 126 Part 1 Collection 4: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of children, in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present The word prodigious deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional grievance; (pr£·dij√¥s), in line 11, means “an enormous quantity.” and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children sound and useful members of the commonwealth would deserve so well of the public, as Pause at line 18. What does to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation. Swift say is the problem But my intention is very far from being confined to provide facing the nation? 20 only for the children of professed beggars; it is of a much greater extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain age, who are born of parents in effect as little able to support them, as those who demand our charity in the streets. As to my own part, having turned my thoughts, for many years, upon this important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of other projectors,6 I have always found them grossly mistaken in their computation. It is true a child, just The word dam (line 28) dropped from its dam,7 may be supported by her milk, for a means “female parent” and is usually used to refer solar year8 with little other nourishment, at most not above the to a domestic animal. What attitude toward poor 30 value of two shillings, which the mother may certainly get, or women does this word the value in scraps, by her lawful occupation of begging, and it choice suggest? ved. is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them, in such a manner, as, instead of being a charge upon their parents, or the parish, or wanting food and raiment9 for the rest of their lives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding and partly to the clothing of many thousands. There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas! too 40 frequent among us, sacrificing the poor innocent babes, I doubt,10 Pause at line 36. At what age Copyright © by Holt, © by Copyright Winston. Rinehart and All rights reser can children be made useful 6. projectors n. pl.: speculators; schemers. to society? Circle that infor- 7. dam n.: mother (ordinarily used only of animals). mation. Underline the way 8. solar year: from the first day of spring in one year to the last day in which they can be of use. of winter in the next. 9. raiment (r†√m¥nt) n.: clothing. 10. doubt v.: suspect. A Modest Proposal 127 more to avoid the expense, than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast. 11 Re-read lines 37–42. Circle The number of souls in Ireland being usually reckoned one the words in line 42 that million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two suggest that poor people are not civilized. By using hundred thousand couples whose wives are breeders, from which these words, which type of persuasive appeal is Swift number I subtract thirty thousand couples, who are able to making? maintain their own children, although I apprehend there cannot be so many under the present distresses of the kingdom, but this being granted, there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand 50 breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand for those women who miscarry, or whose children die by accident, or disease within the year. There only remain an hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents annually born: The question therefore is, how this number shall be reared, and provided for, which, as Re-read lines 43–53. What I have already said, under the present situation of affairs, is kind of language does Swift utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed, for we use here to describe births 12 and deaths of the poor? How can neither employ them in handicraft, or agriculture; we does this language help him neither build houses (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land: make his point? They can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing until they 60 arrive at six years old, except where they are of towardly parts,13 although, I confess they learn the rudiments much earlier, during which time, they can however be properly looked upon ved. only as probationers,14 as I have been informed by a principal gentleman in the county of Cavan,15 who protested to me, that he never knew above one or two instances under the age of six, even in a part of the kingdom so renowned for the quickest proficiency in that art.16 I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or girl, before twelve years old, is no saleable commodity, and even when they 70 come to this age, they will not yield above three pounds, or three pounds and half a crown at most on the exchange, which cannot Copyright © by Holt, © by Copyright Winston. Rinehart and All rights reser 11. souls n. pl.: people. 12. handicraft n.: manufacturing. 13. of towardly parts: exceptionally advanced or mature for their age. 14. probationers n.
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