1729 pamphlet

Vocabulary to Analyze HUMOR

Exaggeration- an overstatement Understatement-opposite of exaggeration;

using a statement, often in the negative, to create comedic effect.

Farce-form of low comedy designed to provoke laughter through highly exaggerated caricatures of people in improbable or silly situations.

Irony-saying/doing one thing while meaning another. When the opposite of what is expected to happen occurs

Mockery: An absurd misrepresentation or imitation of something.

•standard essay format• opening that presents the topic and thesis • a body that develops the thesis with

details• a conclusion--states the benefits that

would accrue from his proposal.

•Supports a political position through Satire. •Remember that with satire nothing is quite what it seems due to the irony used.

About this Pamphlet"I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts,

which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.“

Historical Influences—causes

England Gains Power over Ireland

England Protestant-Catholic Conflicts

Protestant Gains Power

Ireland mostly Catholic

PERSECUTION

•Laws limit Irish rights to hold government office, purchase real estate, get an education, etc. •By 1703 the English owned 90% of the land

• Irish worked on farms owned by English.

• English charged high rent. • Irish couldn’t afford rent.

• Therefore…

Historical Influences—effects

Irish are being taken advantage of but DON’T FIGHT BACK

•To call attention to abuses inflicted on Irish Catholics by well-to-do English Protestants.

•Swift was PROTESTANT but also an IRISH native—what does this tell you?

Author’s Purpose

Author’s Background

•SATIRE=PERSUADE

• You should respect everyone.

“Middle State” Split alliances and can see 2 sides to the issue

Exploitation of the Downtrodden Prejudice Irish Inaction

Themes

Passage 1

"Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be constant customers for Infant's Flesh, besides others who might have it at merry meetings, particularly at weddings and christenings, I compute that Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses, and the rest of the Kingdom (where probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper) the remaining eighty thousand."

Passage 2

“It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, or ravel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin-doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms.”

Passage 3

“The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about tow hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders, from which number I subtract thirty thousand couples who are able to maintain their own children, although I apprehend there cannot be so many under the present distresses of the kingdom, but this being granted, there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand breeders.”

Passage 4

“I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of children, in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional grievance”

Passage 5

“I propose to provide from them, in such a manner, as, instead of being a charge upon their parents, or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding and partly to the clothing of many thousands.”

Passage 6

“always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes…and when the family dies alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled…”

Irish infants be sold as food at age one, when they are plump and healthy, to give the Irish a new source of income and the English a new food product to bolster their economy and eliminate a social problem.

a reduction in the number of Catholics in Ireland, since most Irish infants—almost all of whom were baptized Catholic—would end up in stews and other dishes instead of growing up to go to Catholic churches.

Swift’s Proposal ?

Intended ResultLessen # of

Papists

“I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of children, in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional grievance”

Irony

The Irish live in extreme poverty. They sell their children as delicacies—thus the children are valuable. The rich pay high prices. The poor gain money

Intended ResultGive the Poor

Valuables

Aren’t children already valuable?

“It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, or ravel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin-doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms.”

Economic Hardship alleviatedThe poor gain money by selling their children.There are fewer mouths to feed (less gov’t and church aid).Decrease overpopulation; decrease povertyThis could become an export.

Intended ResultFinancial Gain

"Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be constant customers for Infant's Flesh, besides others who might have it at merry meetings, particularly at weddings and christenings, I compute that Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses, and the rest of the Kingdom (where probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper) the remaining eighty thousand."

“I propose to provide from them, in such a manner, as, instead of being a charge upon their parents, or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding and partly to the clothing of many thousands.”

Overpopulation

There is so much poverty in the country among CatholicsCatholics a procreating and are unable to care for their childrenEnglish landlords are raising the rent annually and then kicking their tennets to the street

Breeders burden lifted

Intended Result

“The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders, from which number I subtract thirty thousand couples who are able to maintain their own children, although I apprehend there cannot be so many under the present distresses of the kingdom, but this being granted, there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand breeders.”

•Verbal irony: Saying the opposite of what is meant.

• "I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife, as we do roasting pigs." • disease, famine, and substandard living

conditions threaten to kill great numbers of Irish=a positive development: is it really positive?

IRONY

Intended ResultIncrease restaurant business

and appeal

“always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes…and when the family dies alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled…”

Domestic issues

Men will want to marry women for the financial benefitWomen will want a good man to help her raise the plumpest childrenMen will respect women as much as they respect their livelihoods and beat their women less

Intended ResultIncrease Marriage

Rate

“ this would be a great inducement to marriage, which all wise nations have either encouraged by rewards, or enforced by laws and penalties. It would increase the care and tenderness of mothers toward their children, when they were sure of a settlement for life, to the poor babes, provided in some sort by the public to their annual profit instead of expense. We should see an honest emulation23 among the married women, which of them could bring the fattest child to the market, men would become as fond of their wives, during the time of their pregnancy, as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, or sows when they are ready to farrow, nor offer to beat or kick them (as it is too frequent a practice) for fear of a miscarriage.”

Okay…that seems OUTLANDISH…

Is he serious????

NO!!!

A satirical essay is a piece of prose writing that ridicules the faults and shortcomings of individuals, groups, institutions, or humanity in general.

Exaggeration “A very worthy person, a true lover of his country,

and whose virtues I highly esteem was lately pleased, in discoursing on this matter, to offer a refinement upon my scheme.”

Understatement “I shall now therefore humbly propose my own

thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.”

Verbal Irony/Sarcasm “landlords, who, as they have already devoured

most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.”

Finally…

1. While the topic of “A Modest Proposal” is serious and the proposal shocking and terrible, the essay does have humorous elements. What makes it humorous?2. The target of Swift’s satire is the poverty in Ireland. What makes the satirical essay an effective method for drawing attention to this problem?3. Today, as in Swift’s time, the satirical essay can be a potent weapon in calling for social change. What present-day situation or event would make a good subject for a satirical essay? How could the subject be satirized?

Make a judgment

The proposal in “A Modest Proposal is/is not effective satire because…

Satirical EssaysQuestions after Reading Article

pg 5 packetSummary:Is it satire? If yes, what folly (foolishness) or vice (serious flaw) is being ridiculed? Are there several follies or vices ridiculed?

Okay, our outlandish satirical essays are funny, and serious, but not serious due to irony…BUT they make some excellent (albeit ridiculous) points!

Let’s look at the arguments/evidence…

Argument 1 for Packet Essay Not knowing Geography is not the student’s fault

Highlight the evidence for this argument seen in the essay.

A Modest Proposal for the Educational System

Questions page 3 of your packetWhat does Megan Pankiewicz compare students in schools to? What is she literally saying about schools?What is her tone?What change in schools is she trying to inspire?

Your Modest Proposal for the Educational SystemYou will be assigned a group and a topicYour task is to create a satire to inspire change in society’s way of thinking about that topic. You can use whatever media you choose

CartoonEssayMultimedia

You will present your satire to the class

Sample

What does the cartoon literally state?What change is it calling for? Is it effective Satire? Explain.