His solution is to sell infants of the poor to the rich. The meat of the infants will be eaten as delicacy and skin to be used as gloves and boots.
I think he wrote this to wake the people of his country up, shock value of sorts. The people lived like this for so long it was just normal for them so this is his way of saying "HELLO", "WAKE UP PEOPLE", "WE NEED TO MAKE SOME CHANGES".
Part of the reason he wrote this the way he did is due to the terrible treatment of the Irish by the English. He stated that the landlords have already devoured the parents...like they ate the parents up. I'm wondering if this treatment and thinking of it in that way is what gave him the whole idea of selling babies as food in the first place.
Although his idea is shocking and crazy and he definitely is not serious that we should be selling and eating children, it is logical in that he thought out every detail of all his societies problems and how this would help. There wouldn't be so many poor everywhere, they would be fed and clothed and living better, no more abortion, men wouldn't beat their women (at least while they were pregnant), and many, many, more reasons.
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Some interesting info on Dr. Jonathan Swift: http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/swift/bio.html
I really enjoyed your post. Mr. Swift was definitely trying to get some attention when he wrote his proposal.
ReplyDeleteThere was a serious problem at hand and he was trying to make everyone and anyone notice. Poverty is a vicious cycle and a very hard one to break. The poor breeding poor. It was the truth. There was no happy future. Mr. Swift not only was trying to open eyes to the problem, he was also suggesting ways to begin the healing and helping. By Ireland being self sustaining and providing jobs, people would then be able to start standing on their own and be able to support the family.
You have a very interesting view on Swifts writing. I did not get that he was referring to the English the way that you did. How did you know that? It was definitely a wake up call and he did it in a very dramatic way. Nice analysis.
ReplyDeleteCody-he stated that the landlords had already devoured the parents. When I think of devouring I think of food, like devouring a steak. Probably helps that I took an Irish History class as well so I have learned about the abuse the Irish took from the English. :)
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