Swift’s A Modest Proposal is a successful piece of writing which addresses the problem of poverty in Ireland at the time. The use of satire is entirely appropriate and effective, and the piece is still popular centuries after it was written. Swift’s use of rhetoric successfully evokes in the reader a sense of outrage at the speaker and a sympathy towards the Irish.
On reading A Modest Proposal, the reader realises it isn’t a straight forward essay by the second paragraph in which he speaks of making small children useful members of society (Swift, 1729). However, it is only half way through, when Swift puts forward his proposal of eating the children, that readers realise that the piece is satire. The satire is made clear, primarily, by use of the subject matter alone. Generally, the prose is formally written and could be perceived as serious. However, the notion of selling the children and then cooking them up as a delicacy is clearly ridiculous. The detail that Swift goes into concerning the idea serves to make the piece even more satirical.
Swift’s rhetorical style encourages readers to despise the narrator and feel sympathy for the Irish. His particular approach is dual; he uses a con to generate compassion for the Irish and an aversion of the speaker, who describes intensely and with rhetorical prominence the oppressive poverty but shows feeling exclusively for people of his class. Swift’s use of enthralling particulars of poverty and his speaker’s casual attitude concerning them generate two contrasting viewpoints that push away readers, possibly intuitively, from a speaker who can address with miserable objectivity a theme that Swift has guided us, using rhetoric, to view in a far less disconnected manner.
Swift has his narrator humiliate the Irish even more by using syntax normally kept for speaking about animals. His rhetoric effortlessly changes humans into animals in his description of using their meat for consumption.
Swift uses the speaker’s grave manner to emphasise the ridiculousness of the proposal. In stating his position, the narrator uses the orthodox, usually accepted sequence of case from Swift’s era. The difference concerning the cautious discussion against the nearly unthinkable travesty of his idea, and the ludicrousness of his proposal, produce a state in which readers have to deliberate exactly what depraved morals and suppositions would permit such an industrious, considerate, and conformist individual to suggest so abhorrent an idea.
Swift’s decision to make his point through a satiric essay was a successful one. “A Modest Proposal” effectively demonstrates its themes while remaining entertaining and amusing to read. Humour is often used as a means of grabbing people’s attention and Swift’s piece is a good example. Although there are clearly other ways he could have made his point, some of these alternatives may have ended up with a piece which rants with obvious negativity. This may well have served to put people off the piece and take little notice of it.
“A Modest Proposal” is a well thought out piece with an intelligent use of rhetoric. Through consistent and intelligently written prose, Swift successfully enlightens his audience as to the plight of the Irish. His rhetoric style serves to distance the reader from the narrator and to subconsciously urge them to have compassion for the Irish.
