A Modest Proposal Précis

     In Jonathan Swift's 1729 essay, A Modest Proposal, the notion of harvesting year-old human children is suggested as a solution to a nation's socioeconomic struggles. He explains the benefits in depth such as ridding the world of beggars, providing income for landlords who essentially 'own' the lower class, and allowing more food to go around for the rest of the country. He satirically proposes this in order to get the people to think about what his mirrored persona is saying, challenging others to come up with a better alternative in order to help the Irish people, aiding their situation. The audience should pick up the satirical tone of Swift's alter ego and think of it as a call to arms, pumping up a nation to take action and self-sufficiently fix itself.