Jonathan Swift/A Modest Proposal

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A 3 page essay that analyzes the irony in Swift's famous essay. In his famous satire, "A Modest Proposal," Jonathan Swift carries a metaphor to its most extreme, if logical, conclusion. At the time, i.e., the early 1700s, British rule over Ireland a causing widespread poverty and starvation conditions. Swift's satirical stance is that since British landlords "have devoured most of the parents," it seems clear to him that they "have the best title to the children" (Swift 1642). In other words, as the British were, metaphorically, "eating" the Irish alive with their absentee landlord policies, they might as well literal eat their babies. As this indicates, Swift's main tool in writing this social protest against British rule is extreme irony. No additional sources cited.