Shocking the Sensibilities in A Modest Proposal Essay -- Swift Modest

  Shocking the Sensibilities in A Modest Proposal           Two Works Cited    Three years after Gullivers Travels was published, Jonathan  Swift wrote A Modest Proposal, a work grounded in thoughtful satire. Swift describes the destitution that characterized the brio of Irelands poor in the 18th coke then renders a brazenly inhumane solution to their problems. He shocks the sensibilities of the readers then leads them to consider the inhumanity of the destitution in the first place. Although he was born in Ireland, Swift considered himself an Englishman first, and the English were his intended audience. Swift used the good reputation afforded him by previous works to expose an otherwise indifferent English world to the circumstances of Irish misery. Unfortunately, many of the English were so predisposed to hatred of the Irish that they would disregard the point of Swifts essay and might go so remote as to endorse Swifts proposal. For the people of Ireland, A Modest Proposal built upon Swifts earlier Drapiers Letters and made Swift a national hero (Bookshelf).   A Modest Proposal begins with a description of the state of 18th century Irish life. Ireland was a place where children too often became beggars or thieves to sustain themselves or their families, women had abortions because they could not afford to raise children, few jobs were available to the workforce, and landlords abused poor tenants. As miserable as the picture Swift painted of Irish life was, the brushstrokes of history were even harsher. Actions of the English in the previous century had thrust the Irish people into a state of diaspora tens of thousands had been ... ...al footnote, not something that pertains to the present. Yet we need provided look to poor children huddled on the streets of Brazil, or hear accounts of people who control resorted to using human flesh as sustenance to endure the sexual union Korean famine, t o realize that the misery of the worlds poor has yet to be tempered by the progress of a modern age. A Modest Proposal could have been written yesterday it might well be written tomorrow.   Works Cited Swift, Jonathan. A Modest Proposal For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public. 1729. Rpt. in Current Issues and Enduring Questions. Ed. Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau. Boston, MA St. Martins 1996. 111-117. Johathan Swift. Bookshelf 1996-1997 Edition 1996. CD-ROM. Redmond, WA Microsoft, 1996.