Jonathon Swift’s Concern for Ireland Essay Example for Free

Jonathon Swift’s Concern for Ireland Essay In the essay â€Å"A Modest proposal’ Jonathon Swift shows an obvious concern for the conditions of Ireland at that time. He expresses this in a number of ways. Although his proposal may have then and of course in today’s society have seemed completely out of the realm of realistic, he very effectively demonstrated how the proposal would have significantly benefited the overall economy of the country at that time. His concern was expressed first through an obvious concern for the women who were forced to beg for food in order to feed their children, secondly he was concerned about the children growing up and being unable to provide for themselves, and thirdly he showed concern for the lack of sufficient food supply for the country. The proposal he presented was well thought out and designed to solve all three of these problems. First, the proposal would help the women who were unable to care for their children, by providing them with some extra money. He figured how much it would cost to feed a new infant for the first year of life and subtracted that from the amount a woman could be paid for the child when she sold it. This amount would give her enough extra money to buy some food and even clothing for her remaining children. By selling the younger of her children, she is better off not only financially, but she has fewer children to worry about feeding and clothing. This makes her quality of life and that of her remaining children much better. Swift’s second concern for the children, who grow up in poverty remaining in poverty, is easily solved by his proposal. In the proposal, the children would no longer be a drain on the economy and in fact would actually contribute to the overall improvement of society. By being introduced to the food supply of the country, they would benefit a large number of people, which would prove to be a much better way of spending a life than growing up and resorting to begging or stealing in order to continue to survive. The third concern was for the lack of sufficient food supply for the people in the country. His proposal of selling the infants born into poverty as food would greatly increase the amount of available food on the market and thus make it possible for a larger number of people to be sufficiently nourished. In addition to increasing the amount of food available, by eating the poor people’s, or the majority of the population’s children, the population would not grow as quickly and the increased need for food would be greatly lessened. Although most people would find this proposal to be shocking and completely unacceptable, it did reflect his concerns for the condition of the country and proposed a way to solve the problem. If people took the time to look past the shock value of the proposal, it becomes obvious that he was upset with the society and wanted to see change. He goes into great detail on how this proposal would be good for the society and the economy. It would greatly reduce the number of people living in poverty, reduce the amount of people begging on the streets and the crime rate, and help the poor women become more productive members of society. The children would not be forced to grow up and continue the poverty cycle, and the wealthy people in the country would have many more options available for the evening meals and entertaining guests.