In the story “A Modest Proposal”, by Jonathan Swift, the author suggests a method for reducing the number of starving children in Ireland and calls for a change in poverty levels. Swift uses irony to conduct his proposal and argues that the nation of Ireland should feed the malnourished and underfed children until they are large. Once this is complete they should take all the children and sell them to the wealthy English landowners as product to be used for butcher meat and eventually dinner. He believes this will help statistically reduce over population and help economic issues. Swift’s whole proposal is very dark and twisted, but it is purposely done because the story is written as a satire. “Satire is a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule. It intends to improve humanity by criticizing its follies and foibles. A writer in a satire uses fictional characters, which stand for real people, to expose and condemn their corruption”(Literary Devices). Swift captures all of the good aspects of a satire through his extreme exaggeration, humor/irony and focus on political issues in Ireland. The result of his essay correlates completely with other satirical essays, including “I Am Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece”, by Wendy Molyneux.

Throughout the text, Swift incorporates a variety of exaggerations for humor to the reader and also to put emphasis on the issues at hand.  An example of this humorous exaggeration is when Swift states, “I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this proposal” (Swift). This quote shows the author describing how he doesn’t see any objection to his proposal. He completely overlooks the fact that he is proposing that infants and children are sold to the wealthy as FOOD as a way of reducing population. This exaggeration is very humorous and helps further the authors point to write a satirical essay. The whole point of this text is to ridicule the English for their lack of support on the cause. Although the author provides a complete and utter ridiculous proposition, he does so to expose the lack of attention that these starving children received. He clearly doesn’t want Ireland to implement this plan and begin to sell children as butcher meat because it is written in a satirical manner. James Ward knows this; the author analyzes “A Modest Proposal” and writes about the historical sides of the nation at the time. In his analysis he describes the lack of support for the young children and indicates the issues at hand directly correlating with the Irish Government. Swift uses his extreme exaggerations to provide the reader with such disbelief that they begin to question the issues he is presenting.  

 He uses an abundance of humor and irony in his proposal of an absolutely absurd idea to lower the amount of underfed children. For example Swift states, “Infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March” (Swift 516). The author describes how Infant’s flesh will be an in season meat all year round. This idea and statement is so ridiculous that it brings humor to the reader. Although the thought is so absurd, Swift does this purposely to make the reader laugh and incorporate common satirical concepts.

The author narrates as a protagonist and uses satire to ridicule the antagonist (unmotivated political institutions). He states the reason for this satire is that Swift’s purpose was a cry to all the “modest” pamphlets circulating around the country and an attempt at getting England to reach out and support their struggling neighbors.  Also he does so to ridicule the Irish for not executing a plan to reduce this serious matter. All of these elements together make for a spot-on satire and through the humor the reader is able to see the true purpose of the text. The humor and exaggeration involved lead to an interesting, but clear point of calling out the large institution for their lack of support and involvement in such an unfortunate state.

The essay “A Modest Proposal”, by Jonathan Swift, corresponds well with other literary satires and agrees with basic frameworks of that genre. The story “I Am Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece”, by Wendy Molyneux serves as a prime example of the two texts agreement with one another. “I Am Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece” is a newly noted satire that helps show the strong corresponding ideas and frameworks. It is clear that the two pieces shared a comedic writing style and a large emphasis on exaggeration. Aside from the main ideas that both texts share such as using humor and exaggeration to ridicule people's stupidity (Man saying Women aren’t Funny) or vices, particularly in the context of politics (Issues in Ireland), both texts have major body structure similarities. In both texts the issue at hand isn’t outright stated from the start. Swift does not begin by describing his proposal and explaining the situation with the governments until about midway through the essay. Similarly to Molyneux, in “I Am Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece”, the issue of women not being doesn’t come about until midway through the essay. The overall structure of a satire begins with an introduction and eventually proceeds to a proposal and the introducing of a problem at hand. There is usually a reaction to this problem/proposal and then some sort of solution to end the text. This convention of writing structure is seen in both satirical literary pieces. This agreement between the two texts provides the reader with the understanding that satires function in a predictable manner. By understanding the structure, it is clear as to what will proceed throughout the text. There are clear genre conventions that follow and force the writer to fit for the satire genre. Although satires disrupt the social norms in society, they don’t disrupt the genre itself. 
