swift - a modest proposal

context

in the 1700s Ireland was suffering from religious, political, and social strife, as well as famine

what is swifts ‘modest proposal’

eat the children

purpose

to mock those with low opinions of the Irish poor

to expose the ridiculous nature of the schemes presented by politicians and officials to solve the social issues in Ireland

genre

satirical essay

mode

written

audience

the intelligentsia - educated class familiar with the genre of political essays as a means of sharing ideas

discourse

parralism as each paragraph opens with first person verb phrases - accumulative effect and shows that his argument is well formulated

uses conventional and classical form of rhetoric

grammar

high register

long and complex sentences

parenthetical clauses to add information

lexis and semantics

semantic field of food -

figurative language - introduces the idea of canibalism

semantic field of transaction to describe the children

extended zoomorphic metaphor - children like cattle