Mrs. Muse
English 12
9/4/2014
A Modest Proposal
This essay takes place in 1718 over Jonathan Swift’s view of humanity, and how people are being treated. Swift felt the way these people were being treated needed to be addressed, and acted upon. Swift uses many literary techniques such as irony, tone, and diction to make readers comprehend the actuality and brutality of how being dehumanized. In this story Swift uses irony and satire to prove points and make people to realize what’s happening. The author’s purpose is to uncover how these people are being treated, and make people understand what is actually happening to these children and people.
In this essay Swift uses irony to provoke people’s feelings, in return hey realize what’s happening without actually saying things outright. A few reasons he uses irony is to describe how people are being treated, and even using unrealistic measures to prove a point as to how these people were suffering. In this essay Swift says “a child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends” in saying this he’s using the irony of feeding people to people so it’s making you actually think about what you’re reading, and what he’s actually meaning. He uses this irony technique many times throughout this essay, and it helps to explain to people and help them realize how actual human beings are being treated, and dehumanized.
Swift uses diction to his advantage, such as his advanced word structure for such a serious topic. When using to diction to describe these topics he integrates tone into his structure to make it clear of his meaning. When using tone, Swift