Jonathan Swift wrote a satirical persuasive essay “A Modest Proposal” (1729) to claim that people need to focus on the ever pressing issue of the overpopulation and poverty of Ireland. Swift illuminates the necessity for change through the use of satire; he used a persona that deeply believed, and was persuading for, the benefits of feeding the impoverished one year olds of the nation to the elite class, solving not only the overpopulation rate, but also their economy. Jonathan Swift’s purpose in this piece is to persuade readers, not to follow his persona’s example of killing babies, but to use only Irish manufactured goods (to boost the economy), to join together (to boost nationalism), and to instill honesty in shopkeepers; this would improve Ireland as a whole and bring it out of it’s current state. Swift’s audience is fairly narrow; he is speaking directly to the indifferent people of Ireland (he uses the word “our” as in the Irish) to tell them that they need to focus on and help their Nation.
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