“A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift is a proposal by the author to set the children of Ireland to good use. As most of the children are starving and in poverty, they wouldn’t help Ireland get out of the slump they were in. But the author had a solution. His proposal, in effect, is to fatten up these children and feed them to Ireland’s rich land-owners. Children of the poor could be sold into a meat market at the age of one, he argues, thus combating overpopulation and unemployment, sparing families the expense of child-bearing while providing them with a little extra income, improving the culinary experience of the wealthy, and contributing to the overall economic well-being of the nation.
The author gives specific data about the number of children to be sold, their weight and price, and the projected consumption patterns. He suggests some recipes for preparing this delicious new meat, and he feels sure that innovative cooks will be quick to generate more. He also anticipates that the practice of selling and eating children will have positive effects on family morality: husbands will treat their wives with more respect, and parents will value their children even more. His concludes by saying this project will do more to solve Ireland’s problems than any other measure that has been proposed.
I felt this proposal wouldn’t have worked because they would eat children, which was cannibalism, and would probably make them sick. Also, then there wouldn’t be any children to grow up, and maybe change the world. Parents would also want to protect their kids, as that is natural in parentage, and so they wouldn’t agree to this proposal. Otherwise, this was an interesting proposal.