Jonathan swift’s a modest proposal: an eye opener

In 1729, Ireland was made up of seventy percent Catholics. The country was run by a Protestant ruler and was against the Irish. The ruler of Ireland at the time made any penalizations he could at the Catholic people of Ireland which, in turn, made them extremely poor. Jonathan Swift’s article, A Modest Proposal, gives perspective on just how strapped these people are by describing the women begging and the several amounts of children they have at their heels. Instead of taking the predicament and eliminating it all together, Swift suggests a proposition to turn the concern into its own solution. The proposal, in essence, is to take young children and sell them to the wealthy people for food. Swift gives many statistics to support his idea and even tosses in some recipe ideas. The author also feels that this proposal is better then anything that has yet been offered as a solution to the population problem. Readers of the article could take the seriousness of the article in one of two ways. Swift does an impressive job by giving satirical support for his insistences and coming across as truly knowing what he is talking about. Some people who read the portion explaining the statistics will be quite perplexed and blown away, which may convince someone that Swift is absolutely serious. On the other hand, an individual may see right through all of Swifts bizarre ideas of using human children as food and may merely see the article as something of a travesty. Jonathan Swift had intended the article to be an eye opener. Regardless if the reader thought the proposal was serious or not they will certainly understand the urgency which Swift is intending when he composed it.