These tactics have been taken up by many authors after Swift and can even be seen as the basis for satirical news publications such as The Onion. While A Modest Proposal bemoans the bleak situation of an Ireland almost. Swift’s essay is an early example of Western satire that uses rhetorical devices, such as example-based argumentation, in order to criticize a social or political phenomenon. In A Modest Proposal, Swift vents his mounting aggravation at the ineptitude of Irelands politicians, the hypocrisy of the wealthy, the tyranny of the English, and the squalor and degradation in which he sees so many Irish people living. Through his biting sarcasm, Swift mocks these people and persuades readers to pity the Irish and hate the speaker. Summary Read our full plot summary and analysis of A Modest Proposal, scene by scene break-downs, and more. His aim was not to solve the problems in Ireland but to expose the ridiculousness of quick-fix schemes proposed by politicians and officials to relieve all of the social problems in Ireland. A Modest Proposal is a novel by Jonathan Swift that was first published in 1729. A Modest Proposal For preventing the Children of Poor People From being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and For making them Beneficial to the Publick, commonly referred to as A Modest Proposal, is a Juvenalian satirical essay written and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729. Swift assumes a hyperbolically heartless tone that mocks those with negative opinions of the Irish poor, namely the Irish rich, politicians, and British officials. In this inflammatory, satirical essay, Swift proposes that the starving poor of Ireland sell their excess children to the rich as food.

Swift implies that poverty in Ireland can best be resolved by selling the children of the poor as food for the wealthy. Just what was Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Proposal” to fix this problem? Eat the children. In 1729, Jonathan Swift wrote possibly the world’s most ironic essay entitled, A Modest Proposal.

The poor were extremely poor, often having to beg for food or money in the streets. In 1729, Ireland was suffering from religious, political, and social strife as well as a famine.

J swift a modest proposal