Swifts A Modest Proposal Essay

In this regard, various important English literary writers employed satire in their texts, although a few of them applied it to fashion a humorous state of affairs, others applied it to give a tremendously unsympathetic tone, which led to some serious concerns with those who were aimed at in their works. There are three kinds of satire, which is, Horatian, Juvenalian, and Menippean (Soft, 2). Horatian satire is recognized after Horatian, a Roman satirist. It attempts to condemn rather than attack a vice. Some of the Horatian satire includes irony, embellishment or wittiness. It has a tendency of criticizing the subject matter. Further, it disapproves of everything in an incoherent way. Argument is imperative to this type of satire. It perceives human thoughtlessness and wickedness as a shared ailment.

Satire is an attractive method exercised to pass across a message or call a certain team of individuals to action. However, he adds that a young able-bodied child who is one year old is the most tasty, healthy, and nutritious meal. What is more, he continues with is argument as someone who has something sound and entirely rational to add. Relating to his suggestion, twenty thousand children may be detached for propagation which is more than they agree to for cattle, swine, and sheep. This is when Swift presents his evidence and drops the bombshell onto his audience. He further provides statistical proof for his claims and gives particular information concerning the number of progenies to be vended, their cost, weight, and the predictable eating sequence.

Satire is employed to elucidate how Protestants ill-treated Irish Catholics in the 1700s. The author is recognized for his satirical text and utilizes all features of Juvenalian satire in his text to attack the methods Ireland generally operated in his time. The key figure in his text is verbal irony, which when a narrator uses the opposite of what he is meant to say. In his proposal, he mentions that the Irish people need to get out of the cycle of being victimized devoid of the requirement for the collaboration of England. With this proposal, he is trying to show his audience that he is a civic-minded, principled, and patriotic agenda that is structured to influence transformation from the within. Further, swift mentions that a guideline about cannibalism could potentially be regarded as a social advancement only in his nation.

Jonathan’s masterly application of this mechanism makes his main discussion be that the Irish citizens are worthy of a healthier treatment from the English. This is a strong point and dreadfully entertaining. Swift’s use of satire is an effective rhetorical strategy because his work of satire does not attempt to cause harm to others or break them by his mockery, unless of course it is harm to the vice, but rather he tries to develop a shock of the acknowledgment as well as making the vice hideous so that the it will be wiped out from a person or the society as a whole (LeBoeuf, 3). His attacks are intended to be beneficial to the society when the recognition shock is transmitted via wit and laughter.