A Modest Proposal

I’ve read this “proposal” several times in my college years. Each time, I am reminded of the many ironies and points made in it. After first reading it, you are understandable disgusted. It takes a while for it all to digest. It usually leaves me saying “Now why did I read this again?” However, after learning a little more about the subject matter and really thinking about it, everything becomes a little clearer.

First of all, it’s quite disturbing that, no matter how it’s intended, the author uses babies as a means of making a point. And the fact that the Irish children are compared to swine is just disgusting. However, after learning some of the historical background of the author (as I did in English a few years ago) a lot of the context makes more sense. First of all, the author has backgrounds in Ireland. He is using his whole “They’re just Irish right?” sensibility in his proposal as sarcasm. He uses it almost to show how ridiculous it all is that the Irish were considered so dirty.

I feel like most of the “proposals” in this essay, no matter how demeaning, were used just for the shock value. It almost seems as though this entire essay is said in sarcasm. Who would have thought that population control was a problem in the eighteenth century? It seems that many at this time were trying to figure out ways to eliminate this problem. However, it also seems that the Irish population were among those being blamed for the problem. It is no secret that Irish were not well thought of during this time. Perhaps it is for this reason that the essay was written. Perhaps the author was intending to show what a serious problem population control was. Whatever the purpose, this is a “proposal” that leaves me lost for words and confused every time I read it.