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Would the Gerber baby have been "plump" enough?


Seriously, this was a proposal, addressed to those who governed, which suggested a ridiculous solution (view spoiler)[ eating babies (hide spoiler)] for the devastating hunger and crime that had strangled an 18th century nation.

A Modest Proposal will have been more than likely read by the masses because it was assigned in their dreaded English classes. Moreover, a person will either get a kick out of the overt and direct attack from the writer or his/her eyes will blink inordinately from the "meaty"rhetoric. However, what is important about this piece of satire is that the writer pokes fun at how a ruler nation bleeds the subordinate one dry by taking all of the money and goods so that the people are left to struggle with feeding their families and/or resort to a life of crime in order to survive.

This is what England, in that time period, does to Ireland, and this model sure has replicated itself throughout history, between other nations.

What this writer wanted to do was propose something outrageous in order to get people to take notice of the oppression and causes for the problems in their society. Furthermore, the writer wanted to unabashedly criticize corruption and power. The sentiment is that since no one is listening to reason, then let's propose something on the flip side of reason, something that is as immoral as the current circumstances, so that you take notice.

This is effective, IMO. Yet, I think, most of the thoughtfully-done pieces of satire are, in fact, good wake-up calls.

Happy reading.