Blog #3

In today's society, an idea such as eating a child would surprise any sane human being. Jonathan Swift's essay, A Modest Proposal, provides an outstanding case for the perfectly logical and beneficial idea of eating our children of the world today.  He explains the perks of the idea. For example, he says that it will protect the tradition of marriage, make a great sense of fashion, decrease the number of beggars and homeless people on the streets, prevent abortions, and leave more money for the rest of society. Even though eating a child is straight up cannibal-like, the way Swift explains his reasons makes it sound completely reasonable and normal. He says that he heard that "a young healthy child well nursed, at a year old, [is] a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled." From this comment, we assume that a child would taste good. He goes on to say that "a child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone... [it] will be very good on the fourth day."  Here, he is saying that a baby is capable of providing many hearty meals which would greatly help the famine problem for many families in the difficult time of the country. The baby would/could also serve as an entertainment dish during dinner parties. It seems like the baby might be seen as a delicacy to eat because they take a year to mature and nine months in the womb of its mother.  

 nursing them to plumpness. Also, he said marriages and life in the home would be dramatically improved for the men would no longer have any want to beat their wives while pregnant for damaging the little bundle of cash inside of them. Swift tends to use negative connotation when referring to the people of Ireland.  He uses satire to dehumanize the Irish, and compares them to cattle, calling the women “breeders” and the children “saleable commodities”. 

However; Swift not only points out the perks of feeding the starving and hungry country, he take his proposal to new heights when he mentions the babies' skin being used to "make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen." Now the children would be considered fashionable as well as a good meal. His proposal will benefit those woman, or "breeders," also in which they will each be paid eight shillings per annum for selling their children to be eaten and will also be reimbursed for the money they spent on the first year of

           Throughout this essay, Swift leaves some important things out. He never mentioned how the Irish people would react to his proposal.  I do not think that everyone would agree with his viewpoint, in fact, most people probably would not agree with him. Since he would have to go through the Irish government in order to make it legal, how come nothing was said about that?  Another thing he did not mention was how the decision of which babies would be killed or which would be spared was made.  It is obvious that every single baby born could not be killed because the Irish would become extinct after the adults died. So I would like to know, which babies would be privileged enough to stay alive?  Would it be the poor or the minorities? I can see many problems with that decision if indeed it does happen. Although Swift had many good components to his “Modest Proposal”, he lacked several key parts of his persuasion. 

               I think that Jonathon Swift is looking for one solution to solve many problems in this essay.  If the men in Ireland are beating their wives uncontrollably, maybe the Irish Government should increase the punishment for domestic violence rather than jumping to the conclusion that eating children will solve all of their problems.  I think that Swift assumes that his proposal is solely selfless and he has no personal gain from it. Instead, he proposes this for the public good of his country. His proposal is to help advance their trade, provide for infants, relieve the poor and give some pleasure to the rich. Even though his intentions seem to be good, it is very highly unlikely that anyone in their right mind would ever go through with this plan.  I personally think that it is ruthless and absolutely repulsive. However, I do think it’s very good of him to be thinking of ways to help rebuild the Irish economy, but a more rational proposal would have been a better solution I think. More people would probably think about a realistic proposal to solve their issue.

                       

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