In "A Modest Proposal," first published in 1729, Jonathan Swift unloads contempt on then-current political speculation and discloses the terrible agony taking place in Ireland - not through direct reporting, but through ridiculed suggestions on what they should do with their poor; they should sell their children for food. Written in the facade of a well-meaning economist and available in the form of a well-liked pamphlet, the area disputes that the problem of poverty in Ireland can best be cured by selling the children of the poor as food for the wealthy. A Modest Proposal is considered one of the most excellent illustrations of spoof in the world literature. This bizarre opinion is an expression of Swift's indignation at what he saw as the immoral financial and opinionated rules of the Irish and English governments, and the author uses the unspoken voice of the economist, a wealth of detail, literalized similes, and other sarcastic and periodic techniques to disturbing effect. At the same time Swift directs his satire at Protestant-Catholic separations, current economic speculations, and other targets. A Modest Proposal has long been judged an unsurpassed work of metaphorical radiance, and it continues to bring together new readers and additional significant awareness to this day.
Swift uses the ridiculous dissertation of A Modest Proposal to bother modern English and Irish politics. He focuses on the symbolic “devouring” of Ireland's assets by England's policies and by rich Irish landowners, literalizing the image to attack the positions of both parties. At its core, his suggestion is that the English and the wealthy landowners of Ireland are grounds for the poverty and misery of the population. Swift's satire is by turns slanting and direct; in one instance he suggests that, while the meat of children likely could not survive preservation in salt for long sea voyages, he “could name a country which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it.” His...