A Modest Proposal
Worksheet Packet
Page 175
Detail
Meaning
There only remain an There are 120,000
hundred and twenty children suitable for
thousand children of Swift’s proposal
poor parents
annually born
Author’s Purpose
To bring attention to the fact that
starving children in Ireland are not
getting the help that they need
Concepts used in A Modest Proposal
I. Understatement
I.
Describing something as much less than it is
I.
"It's just a scratch" - when there is a huge dent.
II. Exaggeration
I.
Describing something as much more than it is
I.
I’m so hungry I could eat a horse
III. Sarcasm
I.
In a mocking way, saying the opposite of what you
mean
I.
Dr. House: So you're treating professional sports injuries
now?
Patient: Oh, no, I'm not . . .
Dr. House: . . . familiar with the concept of sarcasm. Don't
sweat it, it's new.
("Dying Changes Everything," House, M.D.)
Page 176
Understatement
Exaggeration
Sarcasm
I am not in the least pain upon that matter
I am not so violently bent upon my own opinion.
We should see an honest emulation among the married
women, which of them could bring the fattest child to
market
Men would become as fond of their wives, during the
time of their pregnancy, as they are now of their mares
in foal…
This food would be somewhat dear, and therefore very
proper for landlords…as they have already devoured
most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the
children…
Page 177
Examples
Contribution to the Satire
Word Choice: MODEST
Sets ironic tone for proposal
Imagery: LORDS AS CANNIBALS
Emphasizes landlords figurative cannibalism
Figurative Language: USE OF
of tenants
THE WORD “DAM”
Equates the poor with animals
Tone: MOCK SERIOUS
Page 209
1. Begins seriously and then casually proposes
killing and eating children. The
outrageousness of such a proposal carries
the reader beyond shock and anger to laugh
at the ridiculousness of it.
2. Poverty in Ireland was severe and yet little
was being done to help relieve the suffering.
Swift took this indifference to the extreme by
proposing an extreme solution that would
wake people up to the reality of a horrible
situation.
Page 210
1. To point out that the people who are old or
sick are especially vulnerable to cold, hunger,
filth, and disease and rarely survive long.
Therefore, they need the help the most.
2. To dramatize the suffering that characterizes
life in Ireland. It is so bad that parents
sometimes think it would have been better if
their children had not survived their first year
so they would not have lived to starve and
suffer in a world without hope.