2. LESSON OBJECTIVES
0 Identify author’s purpose
0 Identify ironic, satiric, and sarcastic tones
0 Differentiate between literal and figurative language
0 Evaluate the effectiveness of a satirical argument

3. “A MODEST PROPOSAL”
0 By 1700, Ireland was completely
dominated by England
0 The Catholic majority could not vote,
hold public office, buy land or receive
education—which left many in poverty
0 Crops often failed, which led to famine
0 Jonathan Swift created a satirical
argument to propose to England
0 His argument was that children should
be eaten in order to reduce poverty and
famine as well as benefit to the country.

4. SATIRICAL ARGUMENTS
Satirical arguments include the following:
0Identification of the issue
0A mock solution that demonstrates even more intensely the problem
0At least three ridiculous reasons why the solution will work
0A conclusion that brings home the message you want to send
0Humor

5. IDENTIFICATION OF THE
ISSUE
0 ISSUE: the problem that needs to be addressed.
0 The issue can be local, national, or global—but it must
be realistic. Your argument is what needs to be satirical
and ironic.
0 What is Swift’s issue?
0 Swift identifies the issues of economic troubles in
Ireland
Cite a piece of textual evidence from the text that
supports Swift’s issue.

6. A MOCK SOLUTION
0 MOCK SOLUTION/PROPOSITION: the answer needed to
fix the issue. This is also known as the argument.
0 A mock solutions must be ridiculous, ironic, satirical, and
sarcastic!
0 What is Swift’s mock solution?
0 He proposes the eating of babies to provide food and also to
provide income for families
0 He is NOT actually suggesting that people do this
0 He is speaking ironically, meaning that he is saying the
opposite of what he means
0 His real solution comes later, when he derides, or scorns, the
ideas of taxation, mercy, and honesty

7. RIDICULOUS REASONS
0 REASONS: explain why your solution is the answer to
the problem. These reasons support the argument.
0 These reasons must be unrealistic, ridiculous, and
humorous
0 Swift explains:
0 How a baby can be raised for a year on little money, and
then sold for a profit and eaten
0 Explains how skin can be used to make gloves and shoes
0 How the elderly and ill are not a problem because they
are dying anyway
Cite evidence from the text that supports how Swift
explains his solution.

8. CONCLUSION
0 Make the REAL solution present
0 The real solution should act as the counterargument
0 For example:
0 “Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing
our absentees at five shillings a pound: Of using neither clothes,
nor household furniture, except what is of our own growth and
manufacture: Of utterly rejecting the materials and instruments
that promote foreign luxury: Of curing the expensiveness of pride,
vanity, idleness, and gaming in our women: Of introducing a vein
of parsimony, prudence and temperance … Therefore I repeat, let
no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, 'till he hath at
least some glympse of hope, that there will ever be some hearty
and sincere attempt to put them into practice.” (pg. 629)