Journal Entry #10

In "A modest Proposal" Swift proposes that in order to help the starving people of Ireland, they should eat their own children. He says that the poor people should eat their children because they are being a burden to society. He structures his piece by setting up a scene to get the reader's attention. He shows a woman dressed in rags that has children following her down the street. He then gives his proposal that we should eat these poor children after they are one year old. After he states his solution, he gives his arguments as to why this would be effective to the country of Ireland. Before he concludes the piece, he states his 6 arguments or supporting evidence again and then give the piece closure. His supporting evidence is that these children are being a burden to society and therefore should be eaten. In turn, they would now help society. This would also prevent voluntary abortions and women killing their children because they can't be fed. This satire piece is effective because it sheds light on the situation that was going on in Ireland during this time which people seemed to be ignoring. It is also effective because it proposal is so absurd that the reader becomes very interested in the topic. He used words like boil and bake to describe cooking the children, which today we use only for animals. Swift uses a lot of reasoning in his proposal. In many cases he goes through in depth measures to explain why his solution is efficient. He uses math and research to prove his point by estimating the number of children born each year and when their would be an abundance of children. He even calculates how many pounds a child is when they have been fed for a year and how many families that it would be able to feed. The babies could also be used as gloves and boots for women. This satire is meant to mock the govt. because they were not doing anything to help the country of Ireland during this famine. I think this is different than the other pieces we have read so far because the proposal is so absurd. I like this piece because I was not bored when I was reading it and it served its purpose to shed light on the famine in Ireland.