Author: Amari Palmer

“I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this proposal-“. Well I absolutely can. A Modest Proposal is an entirely satirical text suggesting that the children of poor families be sold as food to wealthier people to turn a profit. The author of this text, Jonathan Swift, goes into detail about how the young children of poor families are useless to society unless used as sustenance, and then into further detail about how they could be used. While this is not my first time interacting with the text, fully reading it for myself proves that Swift’s attempt at utilizing shock factor to bring attention to on ongoing issue was immensely successful.

The time when this essay was published, 1729, was a year of extreme famine in Ireland. This famine and economic crisis is what led to the writing of A Modest Proposal, which is what makes the text both satire and a callout to the issues happening at the time. Although I don’t want to dwell on the historical context of the essay, it still is important to note.

The idea of eating the children of the poor and turning mothers into livestock is used for shock, but that same idea is rooted in the belief that women are good only for motherhood. Swift opens the text with the idea of a female beggar going door to door with her children on her hips and heels. Surely, this is meant set the reader up to sympathize with the idea of giving these mothers a break, but bothered me how there was no mention of a male beggar having a similar condition of caring for children. Of course, for the time period, it makes sense why women are often paired with children and vice versa, but throughout the entire text there is very little mention of men and their role in this proposal.

Swift’s idea to eat babies and breed women for more babies to eat is outrageous, but there is no equivalent claims made in regards to men. The babies have it the very worst since they would be cooked on a spit and eaten. Women would have these meat babies, nurse them till they are fat, and then watch them be sold for eight shillings (about $0.54 today). Men, at the very worst, would be unable to beat the pregnant women in fear of losing the baby/the profit. Even in satire, men have been set apart from the secondary lifeforms that are women and children.

Even though Swift wrote this text entirely as a joke, and in a less inclusive time period, it is still important to point out that even in times of poverty and hardship a man will always be represented above a woman. Women kill their bastard children, women go door to door begging with their children trailing close behind, women have to raise their children, and women have to make the hard decision to sell their children for barely over half a dollar. Men, in this text, have to grapple with none of the actual content of the proposal. They aren’t shown as part of the reason all these extra children exist. They aren’t suggested to also kill their children. They are shown to have no part in the meat baby’s life beyond conception. The men in this text, and during this time, take none of the blame nor responsibility for anything outside of themselves.

The Gospel of Mary is an unfinished writing from the very early days of Christianity. Because of this, one could assume that this text would be confirming of other ideas found within the Bible from the time frame, but it seems to take its own stance on some of the foundational ideas that were established by the other gospels written by the apostles. Sin, something that many practicing Christians believe to be an intangible but very real substance is said to not actually exist by Jesus Himself within the passage, rather that it is something produced by the sinner when acting against what is “Good”. This idea is not necessarily outrageous to me, however it does go against what is generally taught within the Church.

The most astounding thing to me in this passage is the way that Jesus is represented. The apostles and Mary all differ from how they are said to have acted within the Bible, but much of Jesus’ personality and message has remained constant even in a text completely polar compared to other accepted Christian texts. He consistently says “Anyone with two ears capable of hearing should listen!”, a sentiment repeated throughout both the Old and New Testaments. Additionally, He does not encourage the disciples to add or subtract from His teachings, another sentiment not unique to this gospel. Despite all the differences in the people He would have been around, this gospel reaffirms Jesus’ character while calling the others into question.

The conflict between Mary and Peter, and the disciples and Jesus’ message, lends itself to the idea that there is flaw in the gospels that are readily available. The disciples expressed fear in spreading Jesus’ message as is due to the way that He was treated and persecuted for spreading His word. This hesitance could suggest that the gospels and teachings most people do know could have been altered to be “easier to swallow” for the time in order to avoid persecution. This possible change is also seen in Peter’s conflict with Mary, as he accuses her of lying about the word. He suggests that Mary is making up or altering what the Lord actually said to her, which is then quickly shut down by Levi. Peter’s accusations toward Mary could be baseless, but they could also be rooted in past actions of one apostle or another.

Overall, the implications of this passage is hard to place, and with the amount of missing pages I believe that it may never be actually placed or truly studied. The idea of Mary having a gospel is not necessarily a hard to thing to believe, but the content found within said gospel may be what makes it a forbidden text rather than a forgotten one.