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The surprise ending of Swift's work can be seen in his work. Cannibalism, according to the plan, is the alternative to managing the impoverished population, which is mostly made up of women and children. The proposal was symbolic and straightforward in its description of how the poor are oppressed by the wealthy, who survive at the expense of the former. This article describes the surprising ending and illustrates how effectively the author uses humor to encourage the reader to accept it. The cherry on top of the satire is in the last paragraph of the Proposal. Swift says that he is very loyal to his country and means every good for the country. Sacrificing Irish children for sacrifice is a proposal with the dire plight of his nation besides making the rich happy. Swift employs satire to drive his point home. Swift (2007) further insists that he does not have children whom he could exchange for money- a surprise ending for the readers. The surprise ending is depicted when he rephrases his objective for advocating for his proposal. He adds that the project will benefit all the people of the nation. Besides, the surprise ending is brought out by the fact that his proposal state that children should be provided for. On the contrary, we learn at the beginning of his work that the same children be sold to the wealthy class so as to sustain the rest of the population. Swift summarizes his proposal by emphasizing the benefits associated with selling the children for food (2007). This is s surprise ending. He reminds the reader that he does not have children whom he could sell to earn money. This statement solidifies his argument on selling children to get cash in return. Readers cannot be sure of the proposal until the last paragraph where Swift prepares me for the surprise ending, as opposed to the way I expected.
Reference Swift, J. (2007, July 27). A Modest Proposal. Retrieved Jan 31, 2012, from Gutenberg Ebook A Modest Proposal: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1080/1080-h/1080 h.htm July 24, 2021 The author now anticipates an objection to his proposal--that it will too drastically reduce the national population. He admits this, reminding the reader that such a reduction was in fact one of the goals. The proposal, he emphasizes, is calculated specifically with respect to Ireland and its circumstances, and is not meant to be applicable to other kingdoms. He offers a catalogue of the various remedies others have suggested: taxing absentee landowners, buying only domestically-manufactured goods, rejecting "foreign luxury," reforming the morality of Irish women, instilling "Parsimony, Prudence, and Temperance" in the people, as well as a healthy patriotism, abandoning factionalism and internal strife, refusing "to sell our Country and Consciences for nothing," encouraging landlords to treat their tenants justly, and enforcing honest practice among merchants. The author disdains these measures as naive and unrealistic. He tells of his own weariness after years of struggling with such impracticable ideas, and his final relief and excitement at hitting upon his current proposal, which "hath something solid and real, of no Expence, and little Trouble," and which will not run the risk of angering England. It will have nothing to do with England, in fact, since the flesh of human infants is too delicate to withstand exportation. He hints that there might be a country that would be eager "to eat up our whole Nation," even without preservatives. Swift insists that he is not unwilling to hear alternative proposals, if they are "equally innocent, cheap, easy, and effectual." They should also be sure to consider the two urgent issues that his own proposal addresses so thoroughly. First, it must indicate how 100,000 "useless Mouths and Backs" are to be fed and clothed. And second, it must address the extreme poverty of the vast majority of the Irish population, whose misery is so great that they would "think it a great Happiness to have been sold for Food at a Year old." Swift reinforces that he has only the "publick Good" in mind with this proposal for "advancing our Trade, providing for Infants, relieving the Poor, and giving some Pleasure to the Rich." He is himself entirely disinterested, having no children by which he can earn money, since the youngest is already nine-years-old. CommentaryThe author's account of his long and exhausting years of wrestling with Ireland's problems might be taken as Swift's own. His catalogue of supposedly unrealistic alternative solutions marks a turning point in the pamphlet and a break in the satire. The ideas the proposer rejects represent measures that Swift himself had spent a great deal of energy advocating, to exasperatingly little effect. They are a set of steps by which the Irish might hope to break out of their cycle of victimization without the need for England's cooperation. Swift's is a program of civic-minded, patriotic, and principled behavior designed to effect change from the inside. The audience is confronted with the fact that there are real and practicable solutions to Ireland's national discomposure, in which they themselves, in their greed and self-indulgence, are culpable. In emphasizing that this remedy is designed only for Ireland, Swift is calling attention to the extremity of his country's backwardness, as an index of how bad things have gotten. The author's statement that much of the population would have been better off dead is exaggerated, perhaps, but not ironic; it is meant as testimony to the dire national consequences of such rampant civic neglect. Only in Ireland, he seems to say, could a policy of cannibalism possibly be considered a social improvement. The author's closing statement offers a last scathing indictment of the ethic of convenience and personal gain. We are urged to believe in his disinterestedness not because of his moral standards or his high-mindedness, but because he happens not to be susceptible to the particular fiscal temptation that might compromise his position. The manner of his assertion here reminds us that the author's unquestioned assumption throughout the entire proposal is that anyone with children would in fact be perfectly willing to sell them. This declaration also undercuts, once again, the separation between the level-headed, wealthy, Protestant author and the Catholic masses. What unites the unruly and unscrupulous mob with the social planner is the fact that their priorities are basically economic.
Tags: discrimination genre modest proposal
Total Length: 340 words ( 1 double-spaced pages) Total Sources: 3
Jonathan Swift wrote “A Modest Proposal” in 1729 as piece of political satire, or as Cody (2000) puts it, a “disgusted parody” and a “savage indictment,” (p. 1). As it falls within the genre of satire, there is a healthy dose of humor embedded in the text but also rich political commentary as well. As both the course text and Cody (2000) point out, Swift was concerned about issues like class conflict and discrimination against the Irish. Swift recognized that the English were systematically exploiting the Irish. “A Modest Proposal” makes an outlandish case for eating children as the solution to poverty. Swift writes “A Modest Proposal” in first person, effectively making it seem that he truly believes in what he is saying. The approach can be considered ironic, in that what Swift states on the surface is not precisely what he means. The entire substantive content, and not just the ending, of “A Modest Proposal” are surprising. “A Modest Proposal” is shocking not because Swift suddenly introduces the concept of eating children at the end of the passage, but because the concept is introduced early in the essay and matter-of-factly. However, in the last paragraph, Swift notes with tongue firmly in cheek that he has “no children” he can contribute to the public cause (Swift, 1729, last para.). This last paragraph is therefore potently ironic. Swift has just presented a firm proposal to solve social, economic, and political problems but then proceeds to say that he has “not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work,” (Swift, 1729, last para.). His lack of interest in personally helping the Irish cause is actually part of Swift’s overall strategy of lambasting the English through satire. With this surprise ending, Swift suggests even that the Irish might lack the gumption to take steps to make a change in their own society. References Cody, D. (2000). A Modest Proposal. Retrieved online: http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/swift/proposal1.html Course Text. Swift, J. (1729). A modest proposal. Retrieved online: http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/swift/modest.html.....
Cody, D. (2000). A Modest Proposal. Retrieved online: http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/swift/proposal1.html Course Text. Swift, J. (1729). A modest proposal. Retrieved online: http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/swift/modest.html
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What is the purpose of the closing paragraph in A Modest Proposal?
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