Hundreds of years ago, many poor people in Ireland starved and parents do not have enough money to nurture their children. This problem is severe and needs to be solved as soon as possible. In Jonathon’s Swift ironic piece, “A Modest Proposal,” the narrator suggests that the poor should sell their children for the rich to eat. This way, the poor will no longer have to “waste” money on their children, and the rich will also receive “high-quality” food. Both classes will notice a benefit. Obviously, this is completely non-ethical and just written as a joke. The narrator attempts to convince the reader by using the strategies Logos, Ethos, and Pathos.
Logos is persuasion with logic. Using statistics and logical non-bias reasoning is a powerful strategy in changing someone’s mind. Lines 33-40 in the proposal show a considerable amount of statistics and mathematics being shown. The narrator adds into account the total population, the amount of “breeders”, what percent of babies will be poor, what percent of babies die at birth, and how many people are poor at birth. The writer performs a potpourri of math to conclude that 120,000 children are born into poor families each year. Seeing all of this math is hard to believe, so it is extremely persuasive. Additionally, the writer even highlights the nutritional value of consuming a baby is high and the babies will be cheap. Nobody in the right mind would even attempt to make people sell their children to be eaten. His usage of logos might have persuaded a band of shady insane people, but it is completely ironic when presented to modern society.
Ethos is persuasion with credibility. For example, a source written by a college professor would be much more trustable than a source by a random kindergartener. The writer adds Ethos into the proposal by including the fact that a very well-knowing American informed him that babies taste delicious stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled. The American also suggested putting babies into different dishes, will increase their tastiness. His usage of Ethos is ironic because he gives credibility to a cannibal. The American would have only known what babies taste as if he had eaten them himself. Calling a cannibal well-knowing is far too ironic. The narrator also wrote the proposal in a very formal manner, which is ironic because his excellent grammar does not fit together with his strange ethics.
Pathos is persuasion with emotion. It is one of the most powerful ways to persuade someone because feelings can be extremely deep and meaningful to oneself. The writer used pathos when trying to persuade that eating babies is better than eating the elderly. He suggested that since the elderly are already close to death, there will be no use to eating them. Additionally, he suggests the elderly are less healthy to eat. The death of any individual is devastating, but the usage of it in this situation makes death seem like a joke. Death is the most catastrophic event of one’s life, and making fun of it ironic, especially because it was used as a means of persuasion.
The piece A Modest Proposal takes one along an ironic journey of an insane man attempting to persuade civilized individuals to eat children. His dark usage of logos always ended with terrifying conclusions. He attempted to find credible sources and ended up listening to a cannibal for information. The man also tried persuading the readers by using death as a joke. Logos, Ethos, and Pathos are powerful tools when used correctly, but jokes when used incorrectly.