...Abortion is an act that kills an unborn human. It is poorly affecting our humanity. Abortion is the method of putting a termination to the life of the fetus by killing it in the womb itself. Considering ethics and beliefs, death is morally wrong. Therefore, the killing of unborn baby is morally wrong as well. Abortions, this immoral practice of killing an unborn baby should be illegal everywhere in world because it is same as the murder of an innocent, gives rise to a psychological pain to a woman, and woman to tolerate several medical complications. What is abortion? Most of us don’t want to think about it. The baby is pulled out of the mother. Abortionist harshly pull out the baby out of mother and then vacuums out the brain of baby. It...
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...Margaret Hazell ENG 2850 9 April 2013 What is satire, satire is a particular genre of literature that sometimes makes use of graphic and performing arts with the intent of ridiculing society into self-improvement. With social criticism being its main goal, it utilizes wit and dark sarcasm as its main tools to illustrate its point. Satire influences individuals to reevaluate themselves in order to modify senseless thoughts and behaviors. Various techniques are used in order to deliver a satirist effect, those of which house wit as their main weapon. These methods harmonize the mastering of coexisting trivial and serious matters as one sarcasm, showing praise but meaning the contrary to demonstrate irony, and asking questions rhetorically. Additionally, the author might understate an issue in order to maneuver the audience towards the true importance of the topic, adversely; exaggeration is used to lower the impact of an issue to its lesser value. Collectively, these techniques are exercised to bring out the human follies and vices in society. In Molière’s Tartuffe and Jonathan Swift’s essay A Modest Proposal, that both obliquely criticize and burlesque human behavior and the perception we have towards others. Through a satirist delivery, these authors offer an insight past the seemingly obvious, and aim to improve this faulty custom of one sidedness rather than eliminating it. Although these pair of literary pieces illustrates satire, it is Molière’s play Tartuffe that generates...
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...A Modest Proposal Essay Sheila Wolfe HUM112041VA016-1152-001: World Cultures II Dr. Sue Lafferty 01/31/2015 I chose to do my essay on Jonathon Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”. Swift’s Essay is a style called satire (the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. – Dictionary.com). When you first start to read the essay Swift describes the horrible conditions of the poor and the burden on the parents to try and feed their children. As you read on Swift starts to talk about the poor innocent babes being murdered by their mothers or the voluntary abortions running rapid in the Kingdom – “……Women murdering their bastard children, alas! too frequent among us, sacrificing the poor innocent babes, I doubt, more to avoid the expense than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast.” After swift goes through a lengthy description of the deplorable state that the poor are in and running the numbers of children by the poor he then purpose his thoughts on how to deal with the children. His plan for helping the poor sell and eat their children. WHAT?? Swift wrote “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragoust.” When I first read those...
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...Assignment 1: Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” Dr. Anthony McCormack Strayer University World Culture II Gladys A. Reyes July 25, 2015 In the satire “A Modest Proposal’, Jonathan Swift expresses his feelings of frustration with regard to the aggravation and political issues in Ireland. He describes being frustrated with the indifference of Ireland politicians, the wealthy, the English tyranny, and the degradation and poor conditions in which many poor, Irish women and children have been forced to live in. Swift is embarrassed for those that come to the towns and travel the country, only to see the streets full and crowded with beggars. Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” satire is a reality called for the politician, the wealthy, and the people of Ireland to look for way to improve the lives of the poor, to stop the English social oppression, and to ultimately end the indifferences and life inequalities in Ireland (Levine, 1995). Jonathan Swift was born of Protestant, English parents in Dublin, Ireland on November 30, 1667. He was a man that was immersed in the secular world of men and woman, of politics and political intrigue. He was a devoted friend to those he loved as he was an implacable enemy to those he disliked. He lived in London most of his life, but after the death of Queen Anne in 1714, he was offered a position as Dean of St. Patrick’s in Dublin. He held his position until his death in 1745 at the age of seventy eight. He was buried in St. Patrick’s Cathedral (Glendinning...
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...Very “Modest” Irony and Satire Jonathan Swift was born in Ireland in the 18th century during an era that has come to be known as the Golden Age of Satire. As a writer, he was profoundly influenced by the political climate of his times, especially the plight of the Irish poor, which spurred him to write the satirical, social commentary “A Modest Proposal.” The satirical essay addresses the issue of inequality and poverty experienced by the Irish through an outlandish solution that is “beneficial” to everyone. Verbal is present throughout the essay and even in the title. The proposal is far from modest and is rather shocking which Swift does to grab the attention of the reader. He satirically recommends commoditizing Irish babies to improve the economic outlook by selling poor Irish babies to the rich as a delicious food item. Swift’s proposal in his essay is a technique used to highlight a real issue and bring awareness to it by ridiculing the public (reader) through satire. The definition of satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, and ridicule to expose and criticize people’s vices. In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift does exactly that through clever social commentary on the issue of poverty among the poor in Ireland through the various forms of satire. Swift differentiates the social classes in his writing through imagery, detailing the differences between the rich and the poor. He states, “Prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their...
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...A Modest Proposal was a satirical essay written by Jonathan Swift depicting the horrific conditions of Ireland and the lives of the Irish people in 1729. Swift writes the satire disguised as a social planner of the time who as Swift satirizes were known to be overly rational rather than compassionate. The author portrays and attacks the cruel and unjust oppression of Ireland by its oppressor, the mighty English and ridicules the Irish people at the same time. However, Swift's opposition is indirectly presented. Jonathan Swift is able to do so by using the persona, irony, and wit in order to expose the remarkable corruption and degradation of the Irish people, and at the same time present them with practicable solutions to their economic problem Swift uses the false persona in order to satire the social workers of the time as he saw them. Swift creates a fictional persona because by hiding his true identity he is able to convince the readers of the significance of Ireland's problem and allow them to see truth and reality. The persona is a concerned Irishman who is very intelligent, sound, and serious. He appears to be a brute and a monster for proposing something evil and immoral very calmly as if it is normal to consume the flesh of another human being. What makes his proposal to be even more depraved is that he proposes to eat the babies. The persona declares, and at exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them, in a such a manner as, instead of being...
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...| True Intentions Behind Absurdity | | | Erik Rivas Engl. 1302.02Prof. Maria Morales21 Sep. 2014 | Jonathan Swift, Irish author and Dean of St. Patrick Cathedral in Dublin, applies satire in his arguments to get his message across. In one of his works, “A Modest Proposal,” he uses rhetorical devices such as irony, ethos, and pathos to try to open the minds of the Irish in order to bring awareness to the people who are starving and living in poverty. Throughout his argument, Swift uses irony. The title itself is ironic as it claims to be a modest proposal only to be the total opposite. He states that his solution about eating infants is absolute yet, gives various other examples that can be much more logically applied. Swift says that solutions such as “curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity idleness, and gaming in [the] women” (613) to prevent the overpopulation of babies born into poverty or that “teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy towards their tenants” (614) are not really the answers the people need. However, he uses irony to help them understand that in fact these are the solutions they need and yet they choose to let themselves to fail. Swift also incorporates ethos into this work. He tries to minimize the cruelty into eating babies by mentioning different ways of eating them “whether stewed, roasted, baked or boiled” (610), and giving them other purposes such as “gloves for the ladies, and summer boots for the fine gentleman”...
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...example, when he says, “There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas!” 3 As you know, effective argumentation appeals to logic (logos), ethics (ethos) and emotions (pathos). Please discuss how Swift uses all three appeals and how these tools impact his purpose. Swift appealed to logic by proposing something illogical, which provokes attention. He appealed to ethics by creating something unethical, which is eating children. He appealed to emotions by making certain people angry with his crazy proposal. All of these appeals cause readers to take interest in his essay and helped them realize the issues in society. 4 Explain the irony in Swift’s title, "A Modest Proposal." This proposal was very extreme, by suggesting the eating of children to solve the problem; so calling it modest is very ironic. 5 Where does this essay fit on the continuum (Horatian to Juvenalian)? Explain/support your position. The essay is Juvenalian, because it was bitter, ironic, and humorous, which are all aspect of Juvenalian satire. 6 Why is "A Modest Proposal" an effective satire? What techniques does Swift use effectively? Support your answers with examples from the text. “A Modest Proposal” is an effective satire because Swift constantly ridicules the ideas that he is proposing through humor and irony. For example, when...
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...English 103 10 July 2014 An Improper Proposal “A Modest Proposal”, written by Johnathon Swift, is perhaps one of the greatest literary works in English history. It is an intelligently written satire that is set in 1729. In it Swift presents the idea of devouring one year old infants in an attempt to feed the hungry and ever growing population. The satire is set in Ireland and was aimed at Catholics, who were known for having a lot of kids and being too poor to care for them. Throughout his persuasive/argumentative satire he utilizes logic and reason, emotion, and character to argue why his proposal is a good solution to the excess population and to persuade others to follow his idea. One of the types of arguments Swift employs throughout his essay is logos. Logos are arguments that are based on fact and reason. In the beginning of his literary work Swift begins discussing how many children are born every year to poverty stricken parents. He uses specific numbers such as “. . . . One-hundred and twenty thousand children of the poor are born annually” to bring to light how much the population and hunger problems will continue to grow. Swift is using logos (logic and reason) when he uses statistics of children born to parents who cannot afford to care for them. He also uses logos to dehumanize the infants by comparing them to food already eaten. When Swift compares the children to roasting pigs he is using an analogy. Another logical analogy Swift uses is comparing...
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...The major goal of writing a work of satire is to subversively expose social ills through the use of outlandish exaggerations that reveal moral truths. The satire does the work by utilizing the dominant mode of communication during a given historical moment. The satirist holds a social responsibility and that responsibility is to draw attention to the moral failings of the government as well as the people using various means of communication. In A Modest Proposal, Swift adopts the pamphlet genre to deliver his social criticism on the problem of poverty in Ireland as well as the expose the indifferent attitudes of the more disadvantaged toward those experiencing economic disparity. Swifts use of economic language as well as his creation of images...
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..... .. | | . |A Modest Proposal | |By Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) | |A Study Guide | |Cummings Guides Home..|..Contact This Site | |.. | |Type of Work | |Purpose | |Historical Background | |Summary | | ...
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...Surprise Ending for A Modest Proposal John J Bradley IV Professor Nancy Pettigrew Humanities 112: World Cultures II November 5th, 2012 A Modest Proposal by Jonathan shift is a literary work of the 18th century that takes a symbolic aim at the greed of England’s renting policies and a plan to reduce the burdens, in this case children, caused by it. According to Sayre (2011) Swift composes with his tongue lodged in his cheek, quite possible, as never before. You can detect this in his work from the outrageous suggestions intended to lift the burden of children in poverty-stricken Ireland and alternatively to reap benefits from them. It is earlier stated that the proposal would be geared toward Irish families that could not afford to provide for their children, thus the slaughter of their children to cater the English would be the possible solution. The ‘Surprise Ending” in this proposal would be the revelation of Swift’s true proposition, the consideration of the poor and rebuttal of policy makers with realistic ideals to correct this ever so abundant problem. According to Lynch (n.d.) Swift preferred living in England, although he was Irish, which causes him to begrudge the policies toward his own people. With that being said, it becomes clear that the proposal will indeed have a surprise ending when swift speaks of his American acquaintance discoursing the subject, offering refinement. Although prior Knowledge obtained from Native Salmanaazor of Formosa Island offered...
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...Constance White November 11, 2011 In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift talks about the English landlords proposing that Irish infants be sold as food at the age of one, when they are plump and healthy. He thought that it would be good to give the Irish a new source of income and the English a new food product to help their economy. He stated that “his proposal, if adopted, would also result in a reduction in the number of Catholics in Ireland, since most Irish infants—almost all of whom were baptized Catholic—would end up in stews and other dishes instead of growing up to go to Catholic churches”. By 1703, the Irish Catholics owned about ten percent of the land. Meanwhile, legislation limited the rights of the Irish to hold government office, purchase real estate, get an education, and advance themselves in other ways. As a result, many Irish fled to foreign lands, including America. .Because so many Irish parents that cannot find a decent job to support their children would spend all their time walking the streets begging. Meanwhile, the children would grow up to become thieves or emigrants. This situation presented a serious problem for Britain, especially since their are so many Irish children. Each year, several hundred thousand babies were born to Irish parents. Swift said that if you subtract those who are born to well-to-do parents, those who are stillborn, and those who die after birth as a result of disease or accident, you are still left with about...
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...Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” observes a heavily satirized southern society placed in a time before the Civil War. The topics lampooned within range widely and allow us ample opportunity to address Twain’s commentaries on the assigned topics of religion, education, and slavery. Our protagonist, Huckleberry Finn, is a young man of limited education and religion. Having been taken into a household comprised of a widow and a spinster, the women were determined to rectify Huck’s deficiencies. One of the tactics the ladies used was to educate Huck about both heaven and hell, and to relate his behavior to the likelihood of his attaining one or the other. Unfortunately, the Widow Douglas and the spinster Miss Watson had differing ideas about the delights Providence offered. Miss Watson presented a dry account of a heaven peopled by harp playing singers, while the Widow offered a more attractive proposition. These contradictions caused Huck some consternation as he’d he felt that he’d tolerate the Widow’s heaven, but wasn’t interested in Miss Watson’s, especially as she felt his friend Tom Sawyer would not be there. There may have been a grain of truth to Miss Watson’s statement, as despite Tom having been the person who convinced Huck to return to the ladies’ home, he did so by offering Huck a chance to join his band of robbers and murderers if he would live respectably. That aside, Tom and his gang were not without redemptive qualities. When trying to find a day of the...
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...Davidson Both texts are similar, in the fact that they both are reminiscence on a person’s life after their death. Many differences, however, can be seen throughout the poem written by Jonathan Swift and the Obituary. The opening of both Texts is contradictory as Text A opens with a series of exclamations, ‘His Grace! Impossible! What, dead!, ’which gives an impression of surprise at the death but not a sense of grief is aroused. On the other hand, Text B embarks with a compliment ‘was in his element at the heart of the action’; both openings give a clear implication of the withdrawal of the rest of the text. The structure of both are also at a contrast, Text A is an elegy so Is a farewell to the dead but the fact that Swift writes a satire elegy therefore removes the traditional aspect of an elegy. Text B is an Obituary, but although also a farewell to the dead, it is read at a remembrance or a funeral so is written with aspiration to honour William Davidson and not undermine him in the way that Text A is. Text A is written with a sarcastic and mocking tone, through the poem it is highlighted that the general has earned the disrespected he has received through the mention also of his failures with use of the parallelism of ‘Nor widows’ sigh, nor orphans’ tears’ which gives the impression that no grief is present throughout any of the people he ruled and stresses the expected sympathy lacking in his funeral but also brings across the suffering in which he cause by sending...
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