Rhetoric Analysis of the Modest Proposal - Essay Example

English 30 August Rhetoric analysis of the Modest Proposal Introduction Since the 17th century, Ireland had been dominated by English tyrants. During the 1700s, the power and voice of the people of Ireland had been suppressed by the English tyrants through their repressive policies. The Irish people lived impoverished lifestyles; they were deprived off their voting rights, rights to purchase land and access to education, which all drove them to starvation and poverty (Swift 622). The problems the Irish people faced were poverty, poor standards of living and a weak economy. It was almost impossible for an Irish family of five to feed itself, or for an Irish to get employment due to lack of education. This reduced them to beggars. This essay is a rhetorical analysis of ‘The Modest Proposal’ by Jonathan Swift. The article makes great use of satire. Swift proposes the sale and consumption of Irish babies to economically benefit Irish parents and give them a better life. Swift’s satirical proposal employs good choice of words, a proper attitude, stirs emotions, uses exaggeration and proper structure, as well as lofty and contradicting language. Having written the proposal during a period of enlightenment in Europe, Swift’s choice of words and title of the work is a mockery to the then contemporary policy makers and writers of political plans. For example his title, ‘the modest proposal for preventing...’ and his proposition to use the children to benefit the Ireland economy is a complete mockery, especially in tone. Considering that the people were denied their crucial rights such as ownership of land, education and even voting, what better policies would projectors propose? In the state Ireland was in, cannibalism was a better proposal to improve the lives of the Irish people. In short, the English policies had already pushed the Irish people to a destitute state. It is hence a literary commentary in a satirical form that exposes the imprudence of projected policies to the Irish people already living in intolerable conditions. The attitude projected in the article demonstrates the enmity between the people of Ireland and England, and especially between the Protestants and the English Roman Catholics. Other than using selective words like ‘papist’ to refer to the Roman Catholics, which expresses hostility, and ‘squire’ as a satire for the repressive landlord, Swift puts forth a proposal that on one side, can be described as being dehumanizing to the Irish people, but proves the English peoples lack of morals. Swift leaves no chance and uses every opportunity to stir emotions while developing his argument. He appeals to the audience’s emotions through the use of pathetic words and vivid descriptions to arouse feelings, especially those of sympathy, anger and frustration. He allows the reader to construct vivid images through his skilful description of the Irish people living in starvation and poverty. The line “crowded with beggars of female sex.......all in rags and importuning every passenger for alms” arouses a feeling of sympathy for the Irish people (Swift 622). The use of words like carcasses and worthless mouths sounds disrespectful, but it effectively manages to arouse anger towards the English for their ill treatment wowards the Irish people. Swift employs exaggeration to amplify the situation in Ireland and draw the reader’s attention. He describes the high number of children as ‘prodigious’ which depicts thousands of Irish kids as unregulated monstrous births. ‘Breeder’ dehumanizes the society and equates them to animals. He uses bold and underlined words to stress out points or express the satire or irony in the phrases. For example, Swift openly refers to cannibalism of teenage boys and girls as something useful and advantageous by using the term expedient in bold and underlining. He also uses his unique style of writing that comes in lengthy sentences, proper word choice and language to set his tone and generate his satirical and unserious arguments. Reading through the article, it appears to be a well-structured work with a study into the background, introduction to the problem, proposed idea and well organized justification. All these are placed in order and there is a conclusion. Swift uses statistics and arrangement to express the conflict in the problem and develops several of these, such as hostility between the English and Irish at the climax. He introduces story- like ideas like ‘the famous plasmanazar, the American acquaintance, merchants’ sales’ in his plot development which appear interesting, but also show how ruthless the English and intellectual upper class people are that they would support the absurd proposal. Developed using the first person point of view, the story line and theme development allows Swift to project his personal biases and persuade the reader to reason with him. A modest proposal is effectively a great satirical success that manages to disguise the ideas and points in the article. Anyone keen can discover the use of lofty and contradicting language in the prose, which has a complete opposite meaning. For example, Swift states that “they can seldom pick up a livelihood till they arrive at six years.....they learn the rudiment much earlier.....for the quickest proficiency in that art” (Swift 624). This is an irony in the sense that the Irish people survive by stealing, which is treated as their profession that can be learned by children as early as possible. Similarly, he heightens the satire by claiming that those prudent would leave no waste of the carcasses, but make value of even the skin to “make gloves for the ladies and admirable boots for the gentlemen” (Swift 626). This is an ironic statement that depicts the opposite of what is expected as it is obvious that the skin of dead human body rots away with time. Conclusion Other than making a humorous proposal about eating babies and hyperbolical justifications at the advantages section, Swift concludes using a tone of high minded satire reassuring the reader that he has no personal gains were his proposal to be supported. Swift employs irony in an idea, pokes a joke in a given subject, ridicules and makes exaggeration in his work. It serves the purposes of criticizing the English politics and condemning their ill treatment towards the Irish. Swift effectively highlights the cruel ways of the English and through his moving article, persuades them to rethink and change their ways. Work Cited Swift, J. Satirical Voices: A modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to their Parents or Country, and for making them Beneficial to the Public. n.d. PDF file. Read More