A Modest Proposal

In his satirical novel A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift gives a detailed schedule of how the children should be harvest for manufacturing and for consumption. Starting with the first year, Swift predicts that a child should weigh a certain amount and be ready for the market: "A child just born will weigh twelve pounds, and in a solar year… increaseth to twenty-eight pounds...Infant's flesh should be in season throughout the year, but be more plentiful in March...." Swift also gives examples of some ways a child's flesh would be manufactured as "admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen", also some very creative recipes for cooking the flesh and telling the readers that it would make a very good and nourishing meal for those who buy the baby meat. But not only does Swift give suggestions of the proposal, but also reasons of advantage. Worth mentioning in a term paper that Swift believes that the number of papist would decrease because most would be put to work making babies for the market. Secondly, the tenants of Ireland would be able to pay rent to their landlords and actually have something of value since everything they did own has been seized.

Thirdly, the economy of Ireland would flourish because most would be working and the goods of children can be produced in their own country. Fourthly, there would not be many children running in the streets begging for things of survival because most would have already been sold for manufacturing. Fifthly, many of the wealthy would come to buy just for the sake of "good eating." And lastly, the proposal would increase the love and tenderness of the mother to her child. All the breeding mothers would have honest competition to see "which of them could bring the fattest child to the market." Moreover, men would honor and love their wives more through the childbearing stage and be more conscience of loving rather than beating them during pregnancy. Possible custom essay thesis: Swift shows that even under these horrible conditions, the human race is barbaric in all sense when it comes to survival. Although Swift writes this proposal as a satire, the reality of such human nature is frighteningly true. Swift offers this proposal to humanity to show what we might consider if it means to survive.