Swift begins A Modest Proposal” with seeming concern for the mothers and children of Ireland who are reduced to the gravest poverty by their British overlords. His gravest concern is for the children. There are so many in each family that every parent is so burdened by the everyday care of the children that they do not have ability to work to support them. The mothers and children are reduced to begging in the streets.
Swift is concerned for a solution for how these children, to provide for them so that they will be an asset rather than a burden. His proposal seeks a way that they can, instead of becoming another mouth to feed once they are weaned contribute to the feeding of thousands. Before introducing his proposal for Swift clearly paints a verbal picture of the abject poverty and lack of opportunity Ireland was suffering at the time. Then he goes on to present the advantages to his scheme. He particularly decries how women choose abortion over bringing another baby into such a bleak existence and even murder newborns to avoid the shame of raising a bastard child. He is so tender on this he declares it would “move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast.” .
Swift carefully sets out the numbers first the population as a whole, then the families with the means to care for their children. Finally the population is reduced to single or poor women “breeders” and children. Then he references an American of his acquaintance who assured him that a one-year-old child is “a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food,”
Works Cited
Swift, Jonathan. "A Modest Proposal." n.d.
