Satire and Swift

Jonathan Swift was a master of satire. I remember noting that to myself when I first read “Gulliver’s Travels”. To this point I was not aware that Swift also wrote such disturbing satirical dialogue about the poverty and devastation of his country. This being “Modest Proposal” written as a proposal of a concerned citizen. Witnessing the starvation of his people, he devises a plan. He takes the reader through his process, that he sees the starving families, that keep breeding. That there are so many young children, that cannot contribute to the country in any way yet, he finds a way for them to contribute. He then proposes that (prepare yourself), they should eat the babies, and make a market of them. (That was hard just to write). I found my jaw dropping and my hand flying to cover my mouth as I read this proposal, but Swift flawlessly maintains a tone throughout the proposal, keeping it straightforward and factual. One could start to agree with the points he makes as he presents them unemotional and as a plainly concerned member of this country. To this citizen it is an obvious solution almost staring at them in the face. He keeps the tone and drops all ethics, truly  he doesn’t give ethics any thought.

What you can take away from this bone chilling satire, is the skill that Swift has mastered in tone and attitude. He keeps it consistent throughout despite that it is not real, and does not actually support this proposal. When one is writing a satire, jumping to the extreme of one argument can open a reader's eyes to the other argument. That is the benefit of political satire, to show how ludicrous the other argument is.