ENGL 102 CU01
Word count:571
“A summary of A Modest Proposal”
In 1729 Jonathan Swift wrote an essay called “ A Modest Proposal”. In his essay, he talks about helping poor people in Ireland by selling their infant to the wealth English people so that both sides got the benefits. It is a classical satiric novel that satire the
English and try to help Ireland. Author states that, in the country there are too many beggars, most their children are compelled to become a thief or fight for the pretender in
Spain because of poor. those parents can not offer them food and shelter, so author give several suggestions try to solve the situation by eating infants. Author also gives the evidence to support his own idea, he thinks instead of spending lots of money to raise kids, poor people can sell the kids to the landlord so that infants can make a good table; Author even tells about how to use infants to make different dishes, Jonathan
Swift said “ A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day” (316). Author also telling people about what kind of infant is the best and what else can be used after eat those infants. At the same time author list several different advantages about his modest proposal, poor people can get money to pay their landlord, the whole country can get extra money and less the number of papists at the same time. Author really thought his opinion are very helpful for both wealth people and poor people also good for whole country, nobody should stand against his proposal.
In fact, this proposal is not a “modest” proposal at all, it is a “ruthless” proposal.
This proposal for the recommendation to eat babies absurd. When the author is talking
LIU,Jiacheng
ENGL 102 CU01
Word count:571 about eating infants; he describes this plans are quite seriousness, almost based on scientific research approach to explore this topic, as a result of this, it created a sharp conflict thus forming a very intense irony.The really thing that behind Swift's " A