(Anna S.)
The kind of satirical overexageration used in A Modest Proposal is incredibly amusing to me. The speaker is an extreme exageration of a protestant upperclass individual in Ireland judging their countries poor for their state of living. Reading through it honestly made me giggle, like, he’s not just being like “lets eat the poor peoples babies,” he’s like, “Lets have the poor people raise their kids for a year, encourage mothers to compete over who can produce the fatest, best tasting baby, the cook and eat them as a delicacy which will also promote tourism, and then also while we’re at it we could also take the skin and make some fine leather gloves,” and you’re just reading this like, “Sir who are you?” Once you get to the end, the speaker reveals that he “couldn’t benefit from this” because his wife is past the age of child bearing and his oldest child is nine, and hes only proposing this for “the betterment of his country,” but really, thats just like saying, “Hey this doesn’t affect me at all I just thought I’d open my mouth.”
Yes this is satirical, I know, but like, how long did this man sit and think about this? What do his early drafts look like? Mr. Swift how much did you think of that didn’t make it into the final copy? Jonathan Swift really put all of his brain power into creating a 5 page essay likening the way poor people are told “Just get a job and sell some of you valuables then maybe you could afford food” to being told to eat their young.
It’s a great commentary on the struggles of the poor in Ireland during the early 1700’s, as well as the lack of empathy or care parliament had, but also, the entire text is completely ridiculous and it makes me giggle.