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A Modest Proposal 1

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28 views4 pages

A Modest Proposal 1

Uploaded by

hadiatahr876
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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“Comparing Swift’s A Modest Proposal To The

Modern Day Crisis In Palestine ”

SUBMITTED BY: Hadia Tahir


ROLL NO: F21-1007
STUDY LEVEL: BS
DEPARTMENT: Literature and Linguistics
SECTION: A
SUBMITTED TO: Ma'am Rabia
SUBJECT: Classics In English Prose

Department of Linguistics
University of Haripur
Date: 07-11-2024
Department of English, University of Haripur

Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal

Summary

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Jonathan swift in his work modest proposal uses extreme satire to criticize
the exploitation and neglect of Ireland’s impoverished population by the
British and Irish ruling classes. Swift proposes a shocking solution by
observing the situation of poor families that parents should sell their infants
as food for wealthy. This solution he promises will ensure not only that the
children of beggars become contributing but ensure that all the children of
Ireland’s poor will become rescue from the sorry condition. Through this
suggestion he highlights the cold and indifferent attitudes of the elite who
view the poor as a burden rather than as people. He describes in detail that
this scheme would not only provide economic relief to struggling families
but also reduce overpopulation thus benefiting society.

He meticulously calculates the social and economic benefits and suggests


that this will boost the economy, local markets and provide the incentives
for marriage and parenthood among the poor. He even suggests the culinary
methods and use of infant's skin for fashion, emphasizing the moral
degradation he perceives in the ruling class treatment of Irish poor. By
dismissing more humane solutions as unrealistic under current conditions,
he satirically exposed the tyranny of British Government and Irish ruling
class .

"Comparing Swift’s A Modest Proposal to the Modern-Day


Crisis in Palestine"

In Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, he uses satire to suggest that


impoverished Irish families should sell their children as a source of food,
presenting a grotesque yet powerful commentary on the dire socio-
economic conditions of Ireland in the 18th century. Swift’s satirical
proposal highlights how the poor, particularly children, were dehumanized
and treated as expendable commodities. In the modern-day context of
Palestine, a similarly devastating situation unfolds. Children in Palestine are
not only victims of economic collapse, political conflict, and systemic
violence, but they also face death and destruction on an unprecedented
scale.

As Swift depicted, "It is a melancholy object to those who walk


through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the
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streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars, followed by
three, four, or six children, all in rags." In Palestine, children have
become the face of suffering dying in the streets, displaced from their
homes, starving, and facing violence in a never-ending cycle of war.

As Swift elaborates on the economic and social strain that led to his
grotesque solution, it mirrors the destruction in Palestine:

“The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one


million and a half there will remain an hundred and twenty thousand
children of poor parents annually born.”

Swift's sardonic argument stems from the notion that these children, born
into poverty, are burdens on society. Similarly, Palestinian children, born
into an environment of political unrest, violence, and economic hardship,
face daily struggles for survival. The bombing of homes, lack of access to
basic nutrition, and the psychological trauma of living in war-torn areas
have created a generation facing existential threats. Swift also writes about
children being "either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear
native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the
Barbadoes." This idea of displacement and exploitation echoes the reality
for many Palestinian children, who are often forced to flee or join violent
factions as a means of survival.

In a particularly haunting comparison, Swift writes about the potential to


“make a reasonable dish” of children at the age of one, presenting the infant
as a commodity to be consumed by those in power. Today in Palestine,
children are not being consumed literally, but they are, in a sense, being
devoured by the war and occupation, their futures destroyed through
violence and starvation. The situation in Palestine, much like Swift's
fictional Ireland, is one where those in power seem indifferent to the
suffering of the vulnerable.

As Swift satirically suggests, "Infant's flesh will be in season


throughout the year, and therefore, reckoning a year after Lent, the
markets will be more glutted than usual."

The mass death of children in Palestine, due to hunger, violence, and


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neglect, draws an eerie parallel. Swift’s critique of how society views the
impoverished echoes the contemporary neglect of Palestinian lives in the
face of international indifference.

Thus, the horrific truths in Swift’s work dehumanization, exploitation, and


the sheer indifference toward human suffering serve as a lens through which
we can examine the heartbreaking situation in Palestine. As Swift pointed
out, the poor of his day were "seldom the fruits of marriage," and in
Palestine, children are similarly born into conflict and deprivation. The
irony and tragedy of both situations highlight the brutal realities faced by
children in environments where their survival seems secondary to political
and economic interests.

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