He states that there is an overpopulation of children in Ireland, and the people of Ireland should put the kids in good use by selling and eating the children. Due to women not having any rights in Ireland. It is also an example of satire, a very harsh way to compare a woman with a female animal. Swift is using a figure of speech called metaphor a type of rhetorical device, referring to the mother of the child as a dam as if she is an animal giving support to the children by her milk. “It is true a child just dropped from his dam may be supported by her milk for a solar year with little other nourishment…”. Which is why Jonathan Swift is claiming the mothers as breeders. Many would fall into prostitution, beggars, abuse, etc. It was very difficult due to there being no rights for women. Leaving the men to abandon their wife and children with no consequences. Many women were being abandoned by their husbands due to it being illegal if you wanted a divorce. Swift wrote this essay so he can escape society for a second and let the truth out in a satire way with no consequences.ĭuring this time Ireland was going through economic crisis and oppression.

One of Swift’s friends quotes, “confirm Swift’s position as a “mimic man,” ambivalently frustrated with and invested in the colonial power structure that determines much of his life.” In other words, he is writing “an escape from unprofitable political activity into pure irony” or who could “escape from” generally associated with his satire. Until Swift decided to write his proposal for the people to see and open their eyes to reality. Who would joke about a child being a wholesome meal? Only Swift would, this shows how times were very difficult and no one was doing anything to fix it. Swift mentions how a one-year-old child would be a wholesome meal do to a lot of poverty at the time. Swift gives an unusual insight, referring to the child as a wholesome meal. “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child, well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food…”. Swift wanted to bring attention to the issues of Ireland by being sarcastic and descriptive about the children. Jonathan Swift used satire as his tone for his essay to make his point towards poverty and overpopulation in the 1700s of Ireland.

A modest proposal essay