 A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift is a satirical essay originally written in pamphlet form and it was also released anonymously. It was originally published in 1729 in Ireland, and it was meant to shock the culture into reality because of how poorly Ireland, mainly the lower class there, were being treated. Ireland at this time was under control of Great Britain and they were not treated as equals in anyway. Jonathan Swift used his satire in way a to get the largest audience he could by writing this pamphlet to stir up the public opinion and to get people talking and thinking about how they treat the poor and Irish alike. Jonathan Swift uses language and terminology in such a way to convey how many people that were reading viewed the poor Irish, and this in turn is important because it would hopefully make the readers recognize their lack of empathy for the lower classes. Jonathan Swift himself does not view the lower class and beggars this way, but more so the “narrator” does, and this “narrator” can be seen as a voice of an extreme exagertation of extremely people out of touch with humanitarian Ireland and Britain.

In Ireland at this time, there was definitely a decent size upper and middle class, but there was an overwhelming majority of lower class citizens. The lower class, including the beggars, were not even really looked at as people, they were disrespected by everyone in Ireland, and they were treated even worse by the British. Swift encapsulated this perfectly throughout the short story. The narrator seems to have had feelings of disgust for the poor but in his mind he makes a proposal helping all parties involved, a humanitarian of sorts. In the quote “It is a melancholy object to walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and all importuning every passenger for an alms”(Swift, 1), it could be misconstrued that the narrator is “melancholy” because there are poor people who are living a hard life but that is not the case. The reason the situation is “melancholy” is because the higher economic classes have to see and deal with the beggars with all the infants and children. The next notable quote about the poor children is “It is of a much greater extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain age, who are born of parents in effect as little able to support them, as those who demand our charity in the streets.”(Swift, 1) This is the first time the narrator explicitly makes it known that he is in the middle, most likely though upper class with the word “our”. The statement makes the point again that the main burden is on those who are rich and have to look at the poor, rather than the burden being on the poor themselves. The narrator wants to make it seem like he cares for the well being of Ireland as a whole and the the proposal will help all involved. This is clearly not true but he is trying to appear as someone who cares about the country more than just not having to deal with lower class citizens. Close to the conclusion of the piece  he tries to reassert this by saying he has no children and that he will not profit from it. In the article “Have You Eaten Yet? The Reader in A Modest Proposal” Robert Phiddian says of this “Certainly, this is the last crazy reprise of the Proposer, his voice reasserting control over a text that has wandered. His slimy insistence that he will not profit is clearly absurd, because he and his children belong to the eating classes, like us readers and our children. He (and we) will at least get a new dish and a healthier economy; he (and we) may even profit more directly from the new trade in babies.”(Phiddian, 4) This is one of the narrator’s last thoughts and he is trying to appear as a person who truly cares for Ireland, though this is clearly not the case. This time period in Ireland it is clear that the social classes were thought to change your worth, which is known now but at the point this piece was written the general public felt that way. This is why Swift went about social change through this writing. 

The narrator starts off by just talking about how the lower class is a burden monetarily as well as having to look at them. This is how a large portion of the upper class civilians felt and this is why Swift had to make this literary piece so outrageous that the readers would hopefully realize that their way of thinking is dangerous and wrong. It is only a few paragraphs in that the narrator makes his proposal, he states it as “It is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them in such a manner, as, instead of being a charge upon their parents, or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding, and partly to the cloathing of many thousands.” The narrator takes a turn here from just treating the poor citizens with little to no dignity and respect, as most middle and upper class citizens would in England and Ireland, to treating the children as animals. The narrator realizes that this proposal might cause people to think he is crazy, but he brilliantly starts using numbers and statistics, that are fake, to reinforce his point. He goes on a long explanation of numbers of people in Ireland and next says, “I do therefore humbly offer it to publick consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one fourth part to be males, which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle, or swine”(Swift, 3). The term “breed” is definitely dehumanizing and chilling for many to read when referring to humans, but this is what the narrator is attempting to do, show that the poor are not to be looked at as humans. In turn this will hopefully make the readers realize the wrongdoing that is being committed by most of society. In the article “A Very Knowing American” by Ian Campbell Ross he writes, The satirical proposition that the economic problems besetting Ireland in the late 1720s might be alleviated, if not wholly removed, by the planned breeding of children for human consumption is sustained “at a level of savagery presumably intended to shock the sensibilities of . . . readers into accepting their own responsibility for action”(Ross, 4). Ross puts it best, the narrator is a product of his time and culture. The upper classes trying to think of simple outlandish solutions rather than actually dealing with the problems.  

Jonathan Swift was known for writing satirical pieces, and this is probably why he originally released A Modest Proposal anonymously. Swift wanted to have this piece make such an impression to stir up social change. He saw how the poor were treated in Ireland and he wanted to shock the readers into helping the less fortunate and to evaluate how they would want to be treated. A very large part about Swift’s writing is in this time period pretty much the only people who could read were the wealthy and upper class citizens.  The quote “The story of our reading is the uneasy story of our implication in injustices which we contribute to and allow to continue. It confronts us with the consequences of our indifference”(Phiddian, 4) shows how the reading classes are the ones who are for the most part guilty, but also have the most power to start social change. Swift needed to write such an outlandish paper to actually reach the people, which he did. The narrator never imposes any judgment but lets the reader do that themselves, and this in itself says a lot about the wealthy people of this time period. This reading can relate to today’s society by seeing all the posts on social media about wanting social change, but the people writing those posts are the ones who actually need to be the ones to initiate change. This was Swift’s whole point, those reading and thinking about how horrible the narrator is, are the ones with the actual power to help the poor from reaching a fate of death, or worse, being eaten. 
