Response Paper

Back in the 1700s and 1800s there was a satirical based newspaper that often poked fun at the issues such as the government and other countries. According to an article written by Amy Forbes entitled, The Lithographic Conspiracy: How Satire Framed Liberal Political, the paper’s founder and editor was arrested around nine times. So this just illustrates how satirical use was often frowned upon. Satire is a strong and forceful way to get a point across not only to a few but to the country as a whole. Satire is a form of writing that relies on using irony and logic to get a simple point across on an issue that needs to be addressed. The most famous way in using this technique is to display it as a cartoon. A Modest Proposal is a piece that is thought of to be one of the most influential pieces of literature, it is a rare form of ironic logic. What makes this piece stand out to me was the fact that Swift was able to what cartoonist did but the difference was that Swift accomplished the task of pointing out the selfishness and hypocrisy in writing. The ingenious form that Swift wrote in was a very persuasive form of writing that accomplished everything his that takes skill and practice.
‘’I have been assured by a very knowing American…in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is…most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled…” (Swift, 1). This very quote alone is why I am writing about this piece of literature. In this piece, Swift incorporates intense imagery that grasps and keeps your attention throughout the whole story. In addition to the use of imagery, Swift uses a lot of satire to ridicule and poke fun at many of the social problems such as overpopulation, poverty, and the lack of sacrifice of the wealthy in his country. Using both imagery and satire in a piece of literary work was very infamous during this time. Incorporating satire in a piece of work to get a point across was not always viewed as a positive thing. Satire is often looked at as a form of freedom of speech but not so free in a sense that you could get prosecuted for such activities. The speaker in A Modest Proposal was the opposite in
According to A Modest Proposal, the speaker was trying to find a way that children would no longer be a burden to their parents or country and to find a way to make them useful and beneficial. The idea that Swift came up with to cure this epidemic was to eat these poor children and unfortunately, Swift vividly paints this horrid picture all too well. Swift goes on to suggest that maybe the cannibalism of babies would help stop the practice of their mothers to stop begging on the streets and provide money for the family in a honest and just manner by either staying at home and taking care of their family or getting out there in the work force. “When they see the streets, the roads and cabin-doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms” This quotes gives insight on how these mothers went to the extreme to take care of their families. Also, if eating the infants became a way of society maybe stock would rise and churches would realize their faults and mistakes. One of Swifts platforms for this movement is, “The poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own, which by law made liable to distress and help to pay their landlord’s rent, their corn and cattle being already seized, and money a thing unknown.” This part of the passage is basically ridiculing the wealthy, saying that maybe now the poorer individuals will have something to call their own, and get the funds in a legal manner since there is no one to really help and/or share with them. Although, he is trying to better the life of the poor I do not believe he is trying to take