Name:_____________________
Hour:________________
A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift
Using Power Point #4, answer the following questions.
Biographical Information: List as much information about Jonathon Swift's background.
Define these words:
Roman Catholic
Protestant
Anglican
Papist
Absentee
Landlord
Explain the political situation of Ireland during the 1600 and 1700's. Draw and label the graphic
from slides 5-9 and 11.
See slide 10. List some ways that Catholics were discriminated against. What weren’t they
allowed to do?
After you finish reading, you will need to be able to answer the following questions:
1. What group of people is the author Jonathon Swift trying to criticize in this satire? Who is he
upset with?
2. Describe who the SPEAKER is? (Remember it will be the opposite of the AUTHOR)
3. Explain the speaker’s message in a paragraph. Remember that the speaker is part of the
group of people the author is trying to criticize.
4. What is the author’s message in this satire? What flaws or problems in our society is the author
trying to criticize? Explain the author’s message in a paragraph
In reading "A Modest Proposal," remember that tone is a writer's expression of his or her attitude toward the work's
subject. The writer or author will have one tone while the "proposer" or speaker will have another very different tone.
While you read, list the attitudes of the proposer and Swift towards each major subject of the essay.
Subject
Irish people
Children
The proposal itself
Other solutions
(expedients)
Speaker's Attitude
Swift's attitude
Read and answer the following questions. Ask if you are confused about something! Look up
words you don’t know. You should write all over your essay. This essay will be the inspiration for
your FINAL SATIRE PROJECT!
1. Read the main title and subtitle together. What tone is created when reading the two titles
together? What predictions can you make about what this essay will be about?
Read pages 391 to 392 where the paragraph ends at “….charity in the streets” in the first column.
2. Describe the problems in Ireland the speaker sees in the streets? What two things do children
do for want of work? (Make sure to read the footnotes, too.)
3. At the end of that paragraph, what is the purpose of the speaker’s essay? This is his thesis.
Write the sentence here.
Starting on p. 392 at “As to my own part…” The speaker begins to list lots of numbers. Pay
attention and answer the questions below.
4. Ranchers may talk of calves and lambs "dropped" (born) from dams (female parents). By
talking of children in these terms, and referring to computations and nourishment expenses for
solar years, how does the persona seem to regard children?
5. Top of p. 392. Column 2, what is another “great advantage” in the speaker’s “scheme.” What
is IRONIC about this first paragraph?
6. Now for some math…. Column 2 on p. 392 “The number of souls…”
A. How many souls are in the kingdom?
_________________________
B. How many wives are breeders?
_________________________
C. How many couples can be subtracted out that can afford their children?
_________________________
D. How many breeders will remain after this?
_________________________
E. How many women can be subtracted out because of miscarriages or death?
_________________________
F.
How many poor children must be provided for after all this math is done?
_________________________
7. Towards the end of the paragraph on p. 392, what two professions can’t these poor children
be employed in? Why is this ironic?
8. Page 393, at age 6, what might a child be good at? How is this example of understatement?
9. Pounds, crowns, and shillings are units of British money. Readers today may consider the idea
of merchants judging whether children are salable commodities at prices above three pounds
as ridiculous. Swift, however, lived in an age when slavery was legal, and people were sold in
British colonies, though not by merchants in Ireland. Why does the persona say selling twelveyear-aids is a bad deal?
10. Middle of first column on page 393, “I shall therefore humbly propose my own thoughts…”
What is the speaker’s “modest proposal?” Write the sentence here. What two techniques are
being used here?
11. First column p. 393, “I do therefore humbly offer…” More math…
a. How many children are being considered?
_________________________
b. How many will be reserved for breeding?
_________________________
c. How many males will serve how many females?
_________________________
d. How many will be reserved for sale at a year old?
_________________________
e. How many dishes can a plump baby make?
_________________________
f. What will a child just born weigh and what will it increase to when nursed for a year?
_________________________
12. Why does the persona say that the proposed food, which will be dear (expensive), is
especially proper for landlords? What technique is used here?
13. The words popish and papists are offensive terms used to show scorn for Roman Catholics. Irish
Catholics eat fish during Lent. Why does the persona say that infant's flesh will be plentiful in
March?
14. Bottom of p. 393 to end of paragraph (“…from the knife as we do roasting pigs.”) on p. 394.
What is the cost to nurse a child the first year? What will a person pay for the “nutritive meat?”
And what is the profit the mother will make? Give an example of a satirical element that is
being used in that paragraph?
15. What else can be made by “those who are more thrifty?”
16. Starting at “A very worthy person...” (middle of 1st column on p. 394), the persona discusses an
idea that older children be used by gentlemen as a substitute for venison (deer meat taken by
hunting), but he rejects it due to the toughness of boys' flesh and other reasons. What does he
suspect "scrupulous" people might think? How is this ironic?
17. Bottom of p. 394 (Some persons of a desponding…), why does he not try to solve the problems
of the aged poor or younger laborers? Explain the technique being used here.
18. Starting on p. 395, in the first column, “For first, as I have already observed…,” the speaker list 6
reasons why his proposal is a good one. List and describe them below.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
19. Beginning in the column 2 of p. 396 “I can think of no one objection…,” the speaker lists "other
expedients" or other suggestions or solutions to the problem that Swift made in other writings.
Are they serious proposals or satiric ones like the proposed cannibalism? Look up words you
don’t know. There are 9 “other expedients.” List and explain at least 5 in your own words.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
20. This list of “other expedients” is the only time the speaker and author have the same attitude or
tone towards a topic, but for different reasons. What do you think is the tone or attitude of
both the speaker and author and what are the reasons for each’s attitude?
21. Why is the persona confident that Irish parents would think it “a great happiness” if they had
been sold for food at the age of one? (column two p. 397)
22. Read the last paragraph on p. 397. Why is the ending ironic? What might this say about the
proposal?
23. Why do you think Swift wrote such a shocking proposal as this after having written serious
proposals earlier?