A Modest Proposal

A Modest Proposal is a satirical essay written by Jonathan Swift to address "preventing the children of poor people from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick" in 1729 Ireland.  His unique approach to the situation alludes to that the situation was being approached form a primarily monetary perspective and that if the Irish attended to the issue with more compassion and addressed the human issues instead that there might be better progress, by presenting a seemingly outlandish, but by the numbers proposal that virtually took the human element out of the equation.  The goal is to reach his primary audience, educated Irishmen of that period and to show them how they are perpetuating the problem instead of helping to address it and help their countrymen.  As a secondary audience it is easy for us to see contextualize what was going on in Ireland at the time and to look poorly on some of their practices such as the exportation of unwanted people to Barbados.  The arguments Swift makes are along the lines of logos and addresses the issue in a logical way that doesn't account for ethos.  However, that very construction appeals to the ethos because it is designed to cause a very emotional reaction in readers.  The idea of raising poor peoples babies to then sell and slaughter at a year old for a small sum of money is designed to get people who are not already upset about the situation riled up, and to take those who are already excited about it and show them some of the author's perceived errors in their management of the situation.