A Modest Proposal

In 1729 Jonathan Swift anonymously published "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", or as it's more succinctly called, "A Modest Proposal." The essay opens with a sympathetic and concerned citizen's persuasive introduction to the issue of the Irish poor. Soon however the speaker divulges his morbid solution: the Irish should raise their children as feed stock for the the wealthy throughout the kingdom. This solution, he continues unflinchingly, would resolve the issues of poverty, overpopulation, and Ireland's unbalanced trade with England. A Modest Proposal is Swift's answer to the fervent debates at the time over social reform, ones which coldly and scientifically outlines plans for the poor. Readers unfamiliar with Swift's satirical genius might not immediately realize that he isn't seriously proposing cannibalism or infanticide, but that's part of the rhetorical genius of the work. Swift's speaker is brutally calculating in his argument, at one point citing figures and statistics as to the validity of the theory, and at another offering recipes for the children to be eaten: "A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragoust."