Tuesday, April 21, 2009

A Modest Proposal

Okay, so Jonathan Swift is rather interesting don't you think? The Modest Proposal was not very modest at all. I think I understand the proposal that he is politically making to abortion and over population but in his morbid sense of consumption of children possibly he simply means that women before baring children should take responsibility for their actions. He proposes this idea with evidence and background which is rather critical in doing so. So his readers do not think he is crazy, hence his closing statement that he does not fall into this category because his youngest child is 9 years old and he has a wife past childbearing: "I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work" (2468). Jonathan Swift simply is coming up with a way to help the economy (in particular the poor) and starving of people in Ireland to sell their children to the rich. I wonder if he is comparing the economic struggles and mistreatment of England to Ireland? His modest proposal explains how there are many children born every year to the poor who add to the population. And because this causes economic crises onthe families he proposes they sell their children, not for slavery or adoption pursay. But to eat. To eat as if they were chicken and pork: "I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from knife as we do roasting pigs" (2465). He explains that "infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March, and a little before and after" (2464). And that these infants can also be eaten during merry events: "others who might have (infant's flesh) at merry meetings, particularly weddings and christenings, I compute that Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses, and the rest of the kingdom the remaining eighty thousand" (2467). He supports his proposal with reasons and benefits 1. greatly lessen numbers of papists 2. poorer tenants will have valuable of their own and ability to pay rent 3. the nations stock will increase by 50,000 pounds 4. breeders will not have to pay for their children after one year 5. it will become a great food for taverns 6. great inducement for marriage (2466). Therefore, with these "great" reasons why wouldnt parents choose to fatten their children up to sell them. This is definitely the most obsurd thing I have ever read. However, I assume there is a underlying problem he is addressing and he is not simply purposing for infants to be consumed for profit. Maybe he is hypothetically saying that England is technically doing this to Ireland, "eating" up their nation and mistreating them not only financially but ethically as well.

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