Modest Proposal Analysis

   Shifting from a serious situation to a ridiculous suggestion in “A Modest Proposal”, Jonathan Swift uses extreme hyperbole, odd sarcasm, and disturbing imagery in order to use comic relief within a serious problem, so that it seems less stressful. Over population is a huge cause of poverty in Ireland, especially around that time period. Women were uneducated about how to prevent pregnancy and then couldn’t provide for them. It’s a hard thing to deal with and it’s something that should not be joked about. Jonathan understood this, but he took it to a level of where he used slight humor in order to make the situation lighter.

    Hyperbole plays a big role throughout the proposal. Without it, the proposal would have no humor and would simply be a statement of truth of the poverty in Ireland. There is a shift in the proposal from serious to humorous, and that’s where the hyperbole plays in. This is obvious when he says, “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food”. There are two reasons why this would be a hyperbole. The first, because no one would really acually suggest, out of their right minds, to eat a child. The second, because the reader is unsure if Swift has actually met someone who had told him this statement. It seems unrealistic when he says that his acquaintance is an American from London.

    Swift uses sarcasm lightly. Although, it is easy to tell that there is sarcasm, Swift uses it naturally in order to make it sound serious. Swift uses sarcasm when he says, “That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in sale to the persons of quality and fortune, though the kingdom, always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump, and fat, for a good table. Though the reader knows how ridiculous the suggestion sounds, Swift speaks as though he is having a casual conversation. It’s almost as though he means it and isn’t joking.

    The imagery throughout the proposal is disturbing in two different ways. The first way is in a sad way. He explains the troubles Ireland faces and how it affects the people. It’s sad to see the people, “who walk through this great town, or travel in the country; when they see the streets, the roads and cabbin-doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags”. Swift is trying to make the reader feel bad for the people of Ireland by using pathos. The next was is in a creepy, gross way. It’s not pretty picturing a baby being, “”stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled”.

    Though Swift is speaking as though he is being serious, the proposal is humorous. It is humorous in disturbing ways. Weather it’s using hyperbole, sarcasm, or imagery to do so. Swift makes the reader think of how sad it is to be poverty stricken in Ireland and then suggests a way to handle it. The suggestion is silly, but it is told in a casual way. It brings a smile to the faces in need in the 1700’s.