Overpopulation and Poverty in Ireland in A Modest Proposal...

A Modest Proposal was written in an attempt to open the people of Ireland’s eyes about the overpopulation, poverty, and young thieves on the street. Jonathan Swift, in his writing, A Modest Proposal, uses a unique way to get people’s attention on the problems at hand. Swift’s purpose is to give the people of Ireland something they cannot possibly ignore. He adopts a disappointed tone in order to make his audience feel like they did something wrong for letting this occur for such in his audience of the people of Dublin, Ireland. The issue Dublin is suffering from is the problems of overpopulation, beggars, and young thieves roaming the streets. Jonathan Swift is giving a speech to the public of Dublin, which carries a proposal to solve†¦show more content†¦Several different emotions can arise from the audience of Dublin while hearing about â€Å"A Modest Proposal.† In the beginning you could feel some sorrow and pity for the poor people of Ireland. With all the beggars, overpopulation, little thieves running around, there is a lot to be pitiful for. Although, later on, Smith may want the audience to feel horror and fear when he actually describes his plans to sell and eat the children, mostly being brought up by satire. This proposal does acknowledge views against Smith’s work mostly answering questions such as, â€Å"How can one make a profit by doing this?† and, â€Å"How many people would one infant feed?† Smith never really encounters the moral values of killing off infants and eating them, in fact, Smith may not think there is anything wrong in the first place. This piece written by Swift may be satirical and a horrendous idea to the common people, it would fix the problems that Dublin is having. By selling off their newborns, which they can’t afford anyway, they can make quite a bit of profit, helping with the poverty problem. Soon, they won’t have to worry about the little thieves run ning around because all of the children that have been stealing will have grown up and there won’t be any new children coming into the business. Lastly, with the new generation being butchered and devoured, there would be a rapid decrease in theShow MoreRelatedA Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift813 Words   |  4 PagesJonathan Swift, author of the satirical piece â€Å"A Modest Proposal,† organized an outrageous proposal to the people of Ireland. In this pamphlet, Swift offered his personal views on how to overcome Ireland’s issue of overpopulation and poverty. By raising nationwide attention, Swift plan to shock the readers by emphasizing the idea of cannibalism as a way to deal with Ireland’s problems. 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