A Modest Proposal

       A hilarious rap song version of A Modest Proposal.  

         Jonathon Swift's A Modest Proposal is a satirical work addressing the issue of overpopulation and widespread poverty in 18th century Ireland. In solution to these pressing problems, Swift suggests that children (who are a burden to both their parents and society) be sold to the affluent as sustenance and for the more crafty as leather for gloves and boots. His proposal would help to relieve the stress on Ireland's economy by creating a new market for baby meat, providing women of child-rearing age with a source of income, and vastly decreasing the burden that the hoards of thieving children put on their parents and society to provide for them. If put into effect, mothers and fathers alike would feel more love for their children; consequently, a decrease in abortion and domestic abuse would be a bonus advantage to this proposal.

        Although the problems that Swift addresses are very serious, his proposition that the people of Ireland start raising babies like cattle for slaughter was far from authentic.  What then was the purpose of his proposal? A Modest Proposal  was intended to make people think and realize the absurdity of some of the happenings in their society. He makes a statement on the landlords' atrocious maltreatment of the common people by comparing it to the cannibalism of children in this grotesque parody. This is made ever so clear when he says "I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children" (Loc 44). Smith also targets the common people's lack of scruples when he hints that babies being marketable would improve marriages and familial love.

        Overall I think that A Modest Proposal was a ingenious piece of work, packed full of remarks on various different problems that Swift saw in his society. In my Jr. year my class actually had to read this and write our own modest proposals which was lots of fun. I'm going to link to a modern, modest proposal on obesity. 
http://theminaretonline.com/2011/10/05/article19587