A Modest Proposal

Swift's "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” suggests that the Irish, suffering from severe poverty under English rule, should eat their young in order to overcome starvation and overpopulation. Swift’s proposal, hardly modest, is to fatten up the undernourished poor children and then sell them to more well-to-do families as food.

By presenting this outrageous concept as though it should be easily and readily assented to by the masses, Swift shocks his readers into really considering other methods by which to address starvation and overpopulation in Ireland. This works so well because he creates a political satire out of seemingly logical arguments. Furthermore, Swift suggests that if his proposal is adopted that it could solve overpopulation and unemployment, save the poor from having to spend what little money they make on raising the excess children in their families, and provide the poor with much needed additional income while giving the wealthy access to another guilty pleasure to feed their gluttonous lifestyles.

What makes Swift's proposal work, in my opinion, is the very reason that celebrities typically embrace the tabloids, tmz, etc; it's the idea that even bad publicity is good publicity. In short, anything that is facilitative of discourse is beneficial to their cause (which happens to be getting larger roles that pay more money). In Swift's case it's getting people to be so repulsed by his suggestion that they will begin a rhetorical discourse with others about a more "modest" proposal than the one Swift presented. We see this kind of ideology in literature as well as the media. Consider Huckleberry Finn. It's a very controversial novel, often pulled off reading lists in public schools because of the authors treatment of race. In my opinion, however, I feel that the book is beneficial in the classroom because it can be used as a bridge into discussions pertaining to racial prejudices that may or may not be just as present in today's society as it was in Twain's.

If literature encourages dialogue that would not have been initiated otherwise is it not worthwhile regardless of whether or not the content is modest or ostentatious?