In Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”, the surprise ending was the author’s proposition to sell one-year old babies of impoverished families to rich and affluent citizens of Ireland for the purpose of being served as cooked gourmet dishes in different culinary techniques or methods. The point of realization that the ending would be different from what the beginning of the reading suggested that it would be, was actually introduced in the seventh paragraph when the author initially indicated that children were being seriously regarded as commodities through the computations stated therein: “I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or a girl before twelve years old, is no saleable commodity, and even when they come to this age, they will not yield above three pounds, or three pounds and half a crown at most, on the exchange” (Swift, 2003, par. 7). Then, the actual proposal was explicitly stated in the ninth paragraph where a child supposedly aptly nursed within one year could be turned into delicious and nutritous food.
Overall, the main problems of overpopulation, poverty, and inability to raise children in the most productive manner would ultimately be addressed through the author’s proposal. The presentations of rationales that justify the contentions prove to be a logical and convincing strategy that would sway the readers into accepting the validity of his assertions.
References
Sayre, H. M. (2012). The Humanities: Culture, continuity and change, Volume 2 (2nd ed.).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Swift, J. (2003, September 6). A Modest Proposal . Retrieved from The Victorian Web: http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/swift/modest.html
