A modest proposal

Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal works beautifully as a satirical piece meant not only to mock the doings of the English people but also to present good ideas to the English government on how to solve the starvation issue in Ireland.

The proposal follows all the requirements, according to Harbrace, on how to make a proposal effective. First there is a clear identifiable problem that the proposal seeks to resolve. The people of Ireland are starving and begging for sustenance and the English people have so far done practically nothing to help them. As an educated writer involved in politics Swift is concerned about this. Which brings us to the next requirement. Enough people must be concerned about the issue of one’s proposal. In this case the whole of Great Brittan was concerned. The English government’s decisions about what to do with the Irish would affect taxes, jobs, and agriculture.

Thirdly, the proposed solution will resolve the problem in a way the people will find acceptable. The solution Swift comes up with in his proposal is that the English should take the children of the Irish, kill them, and then eat them. Obviously this is not an acceptable solution which is exactly why he is proposing it. He is mocking the English’s previously proposed solutions which were racist and insufficient by saying, “If your going to do the wrong thing, why don’t you do it in the worst way possible.” In reality however, Swift is genius by mixing in genuinely good arguments into his satirical piece. He recommends to the English employ them in agriculture or to build homes.

Swift also fulfills the forth requirement which says a proposal should analyze the cost and benefits of the solution. Swift claims everyone will benefit from his heinous solution. The English will get clothed with baby leather. The Irish will get paid and fed, and the number of future beggars will be reduced from the streets. The cost is that there will be a reduction in the number of people in the kingdom which he sarcastically claims is not a great loss but a part of the solution.

The fifth requirement for a proposal is that it is directed to the appropriate audience. In this case it is the upper class English law makers. This proposal is especially effective because it mocks the people who think they are high class. It shows them how barrack they are. It also uses a style and a language that only this class would understand.

Finally, the proposal clearly explains the steps to make the baby- eating solution a reality. He describes the exact age, the size of the children, the time in which they will be taken from their mother, the kind of children that will be taken. He is very detail oriented and crafty as to why these certain requirements would make eating babies ok.