A modest Proposal Analysis

Demonstrating his Idea of eating Babies to lower the number of needless beggars, in “A modest Proposal”’ Jonathan Swift uses black Comedy, brutal Absurdity and gross Imagery, in order to explain his quite logical, but cruel plan of selling the babies flesh and body parts to have a fair solution for poor people who wold earn money and for rich people who could enjoy the luxus of baby-leather gloves.

Swift writes his Modest Proposal as a black Comedy, explaining his well thought out plan of eating beggars babies seems morbid an grotesque. He starts with simple thoughts of just selling the flesh, calculating how many people could eat from one baby.
“A child will make two dishes at an entertainment with friends and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish”
From there he goes over to the fact the “flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in march, and a little before and after.” He eve mentions his thought of the idea being an option of the skin being a nice tool for luxury accessories for the richer people, like ”gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen.”

If someone reads the piece in a serious way, the first thing that seems obvious is the brutal Absurdity, Jonathan Swift uses. The neatness of his plan seems insane, when he writes “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust”. Alone the Idea of someone assuring him that children, who lived under certain circumstances until they get eaten, taste the best, shows that the author can’t be completely serious about the subject.

While reading, pictures of Thanksgiving diner flash through the readers mind, the turkey exchanged with a Baby. The family sits around the Table, the father is cuts the Baby and asks “Who wants the leg?”
The Imagery to the Proposal is simply gross. Even though the text is fun to read, nobody can help, imagine the pictures of Babies getting slaughtered, selled and eaten.
With his statement, that “it’s very well known, that they are every day dying, and rotting, by cold and famine, and filth, and vermin, as fast as can be reasonable expected .”, the picture of the middle ages is part of the imagery.

In one nutshell, Jonathan Swift has a really good idea for solving the problem of too many begging and “useless” people, that is simply to cruel and unmoral to accomplish.