Analyze the Use of Satire as Rhetoric (4.1.8)

What problem was Ireland facing when Swift wrote "A Modest Proposal"?

Absentee landlords who lived in England

Extreme poverty among many families

English landlords charging Irish households expensive rent

Sarcasm

element of rhetoric describes language that often means the opposite of what it is literally saying

Example:

landlords won't mind eating the children because they have "already devoured" the children's parents

Irony

identifies the contrast between reader expectations and reality

Hyperbole

uses exaggeration to make a point

Example:

When Swift the satirist writes, "I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavouring to promote this necessary work,"

According to the narrator, what advantage do the impoverished children of Ireland have?

They can live as beggars, become thieves, or leave the country and fight in Spain.

What is one example from "A Modest Proposal" in which the narrator's tone doesn't match the topic he is discussing?

He provides rational, statistical information that supports the feasibility of raising children as livestock.

He describes eating children as a cheap and evenhanded way to solve poverty.

He provides practical ideas for recipes on cooking children in the kitchen.

Understatement

A statement that says less than what is meant

Example:

It is not improbable that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such a practice eating children, (although indeed very unjustly) as a little bordering upon cruelty . . .

Then as to the females, [eating children] would, I think, with humble submission, be a loss to the publick, because they soon would become breeders themselves . . .

When Swift the narrator suggests that his proposal is "modest,"

Hyperbole

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally

Example:

Some persons of a desponding spirit are in great concern about that vast number of poor people, who are aged, diseased, or maimed . . . it is very well known, that they are every day dying . . . as fast as can be reasonably expected.

What is one way that Swift uses irony in "A Modest Proposal"?

He creates a distinction between what he says and what he really means.

He creates a distinction between what he says and what he really means.

The narrator's idea is ridiculous and immodest, not humble and acceptable.

Why does the narrator list "other expedients" in solving the problem but then tell the reader to ignore such ideas?

Because it forces the reader to actually consider other ways to solve Ireland's economic issues

Why did Swift title his work "A Modest Proposal"?

Its irony helps the reader understand that such an idea is not acceptable and isn't meant to be taken seriously.

In the beginning of the pamphlet, how does the narrator try to appeal to the reader?

Its irony helps the reader understand that such an idea is not acceptable and isn't meant to be taken seriously.

In the beginning of the pamphlet, how does the narrator try to appeal to the reader?

He appeals to the audience's logic by presenting statistics that prove the financial success of the plan.

According to the ideas presented in "A Modest Proposal," what does the narrator seem to value most?

Money

According to the ideas presented in "A Modest Proposal," who does the Swift the satirist most likely consider to be a big part of the problem?

English lords

According to the ideas presented in "A Modest Proposal," who does the narrator, but not Swift himself, seem to blame most for Ireland's poverty?

Parents

Read the following passage:

It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads and cabbin-doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms.

To what real-world problem from Swift's time is the narrator referring?

Poverty

Read the following passage:

The poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own, which by law may be made liable to a distress, and help to pay their landlord's rent, their corn and cattle being already seized, and money a thing unknown.

To what real-world problem from Swift's time is the narrator referring?

Poor management of Irish lands by English lords

Read the following passage.

[T]here are more children born in Roman Catholick countries about nine months after Lent, the markets will be more glutted than usual, because the number of Popish infants, is at least three to one in this kingdom, and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of Papists among us.

To what real-world problem from Swift's time is the narrator referring?

Religious clashes between the Protestants and Catholics