Week 1- A Modest Proposal

What was your first reaction to this story? What does Swift propose? List at least three specific
proposals from his story. What is satire? Why is Swift using Satire here?

My first reaction to this story was disbelief. I could not believe that this man was seriously proposing to
eat children in such a cold hearted way. Swift proposed that the poor could sell their children as meat to
the very rich. Swift suggests that poor tenants will have something to hold for collateral and capable of
being seized, and as if that was not enough says that men would look fondly at their wives as they were
now their mares. Seriously, who does that?!

Satire is a literary form that makes fun of our shortcomings. Sort of like literary sarcasm. Swift was
using satire to comment on the callous behavior that his country had towards the poor in his country.