A Modest Proposal: A Satirical Solution of Poverty and Famine

In 18th-century Ireland, people were suffering. Suffering through extreme poverty combined with famines and loss of hope existed throughout the entire society. Many families could not feed their infant children so they ended up begging for their survival on sidewalks. The darkness of those days was characterized by wealthy people who disregarded poor people’s agony even though no promising solutions came forward. During this difficult period, a man named Jonathan Swift wrote a bold piece of writing that shocked many — A Modest Proposal: A Satirical Solution of Poverty and Famine. Swift produced an unconventional piece rather than an ordinary essay.

He employed satire as an expression method which combines humorous or amplified elements to divulge the truth through writing. His idea? Swift proposed in his writing that poor people should sell their children as a source of food for wealthy citizens. Throughout his essay he maintained this statement only as a satirical device. The author dreamed of achieving attention while demonstrating the severe state of affairs at that time. Swift used his shocking suggestion as a tool to attack the government together with wealthy elites and the entire society because they failed to help poor people suffering from starvation. His objective was to create awareness rather than encourage viciousness because he wanted people to revise their ways.

Analyzing the Underlying Message Within the Written Text

Many people first reacted with anger or confusion after reading “A Modest Proposal: A Satirical Solution of Poverty and Famine”. The deeper analysis revealed Swift’s piece was not about child consumption because his true objective was to display poor mistreatment coupled with the blindness of the powerful classes. Swift employed shocking writing techniques which caused discomfort among readers to make his point evident. His belief was that truth requires intense shock to make indifferent people pay attention. Today his creations remain remembered because they express social inequality and demonstrate the transformative potential of written expression for securing social justice.