"I do therefore humbly offer it to publick consideration, that of the hundred and twenty thousand children, already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle, or swine, and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore, one male will be sufficient to serve four females." What...? As I started reading A Modest Proposal, by Dr. Jonathan Swift, I was confused due to the way it was worded, it is from 1729 after all, but then I reached the above quote and thought that there was no way I was interpreting this correctly. The beginning of the reading stated, "For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick." After reading this I thought perhaps this reading would be about finding a way for children to work or help their parents, I certainly did not think that it would be about eating them...
I did not realize at first that this was a satire... I thought this was some sick joke, but not really a joke, I honestly believed as I was reading this story that the author was twisted and was actually proposing that people should sell their children as food... I was baffled. Actually I was so shocked by what I was reading that I stopped and looked at my friend, whom I was studying with, and started to explain what I was reading with utter disgust. Luckily, before writing this blog post, I researched Jonathan Swift and his "Modern Proposal" and realized that, thankfully, he was not serious about everything he shared and that he actually was trying to make a point.
After I understood the meaning of this story I, not only felt a lot better but, was able to make sense of what he was trying to get at. Without previous knowledge, about the mistreatment England posed upon Ireland, I can understand why many folks would be confused and sickened by this satire, however once the background behind this satire is understood it is obvious why Jonathan Swift wrote the way he did. He explained his proposal in this satire in such a way to make jabs at England and to express the absurdities that people considered solutions to many problems that were being faced at the time. He was especially insulted by projects that tried to fix population and labour issues with a simple cure-all solution, according to the information I found on Wikipedia. I normally do not ever use Wikipedia for information because it is not always accurate, however I found it to be quite helpful to better understand the different viewpoints on this reading.
I know what you mean. I knew this was a satire proposal when going to read it, but I was so caught up in the gruesome nature of it, that the satirical nature went out the window.
ReplyDeleteSo far, all I've learned is that food + satire = eating children.
Definitely a good idea to research the proposal first. I told myself I'd read the historical context after I wrote my post. I definitely missed the point...I just kinda of cheated and wrote as if Swift was serious.
ReplyDeletewhat really struck me was how effective the satire is, especially once you realize it's only satire.
ReplyDeleteThe first time that I went through the piece, I was also surprised at what it was actually about, since I was expecting the same as you. It seems normal at the beginning, the way it starts out, but then it gets really shocking.
ReplyDeleteI found the reading to be really shocking too...I like how you included the wikipedia website as well
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