Yasmine's Blog!!

“It is a melancholy object […] when they see the streets, the roads and cabin doors crowded with beggars of the female sex […]”. This is the truest statement I read throughout the whole, “A Modest Proposal”, by Jonathan Swift. In this proposal, the speaker tells us about the hardships experienced throughout Ireland, mainly in the female population and their soon to be beggar children. The speaker tells of his ideas to make sure that after the age of one, when a child can no longer live on his mother’s breast milk, the children will be taken care of, by the government or by special needs supporters. The author/speaker is possibly a middle class or upper class member of Ireland’s society because although he wants to start this program for the poor of Ireland, he also stated that he doesn’t have any particular or personal feelings toward the situation and is only doing it for the “public good of my country”. This proposal appeared to be not serious when the speaker started telling about how cannibalism was accepted and the poor people and children were delicious meals and great gifts. My initial response was sincere and understanding of the situation in Ireland, and it still is. But my positive feelings towards the article started to decline as I continued further into the proposal. Although many of the points were necessary in peoples’ understanding, support and care towards the situation, it could have been said in less wording and some of the repetition was not essential in the understanding. I feel that this proposal was aiming at the middle but mainly upper class to take charge, because the lower class had no rights and could not take care of themselves, and their population. The lower class was the minority and had minimal rights compared to the middle and upper classes. They needed those upper groups to help them and their families.

posted by Yasmine Scott @ 2:17 PM