Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal is a piece that outlines the framework for the genre satire.  In the proposal, Swift clearly lays out an absurd plan of eating children to combat the effects of poverty and overpopulation.  In this work, the protagonist is clearly shown as both the government and societal norms during this time period.  The piece follows a very conventional line of irony to prove this satirical point.  Using satire Swift is able to draw attention to a political issue of his time period.  Swift’s work is formatted in a very traditional fashion.  A thesis is made that is developed with a body of details and a final conclusion is created in which each of the main details of the body are summarized.  Throughout his piece, he uses transition words clearly separate between these different parts of the writing.  For example, Swift introduces his thesis by the sentence, “I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection (Swift 514).”  This sentence clearly establishes the format of the essay to the reader by separating his opinions from facts presented in the introduction of the problem.  However, this is not the only transition that can be found in his work.  His conclusion branches from firstly all the way to sixthly giving each of his points a separate paragraph to firmly structure his satirical argument.  Swift clearly creates his argument in an entirely logical manner with a thesis, supporting details, body, and conclusion.

The writing of Molyneux uses the genre satire in a similar fashion at its core.  A political or social issue is brought to light by the means of verbal irony.  Similarly to Swift’s protagonist Molyneux argues against common held societal norms of the time.  Additionally, they both clearly state the problem that is addressed in their titles.  The difference in Molyneux’s piece is that apart from this one similarity her conventions entirely contrast the generic conventions laid out by the lens text of Swift.  Rather than being structured like an argument, the writing appears as though it could have been a story.  Transitions such as, “The other day”, “so then”, “Oh”, and “Well” can be found sprinkled throughout this text (Molyneux 521-523).  This change in convention allows for her satire to appear much less direct.  Instead of a very concrete logical argument as outlined in Swift’s work Molyneux forges her argument through exaggerating common held beliefs in todays society.  From these two pieces it can be seen that satire may be used in the structure of a logical argument, or that of the ethical argument that is created by Molyneux.