“A MODEST PROPOSAL”

Rachel Thornton

&

Rae Gross

SUMMARIZE:Swift is criticizing the wealthy British people because they will not help the

poor Irish people even though they have the money to do so.

Page 615 says, “…Therefore, whoever could find out a cheap, and easy

method of making these children sound useful members of the common

wealth would deserve so well of the public as to have his statue set up for a

preserver of the nation.”

This passage from “A Modest Proposal” is saying that if the wealthy are

going to judge the poor, they might as well find a good use for them. It is

also saying that if they could find a good use for them in a cheap and easy

way, that they would deserve praise because they would be a “preserver of

the nation”.

IDENTIFY:

The intended audience for “A Modest Proposal” is the wealthy

British people, and he wants them to help the poor Irish people.

Swift basically wanted to shock the wealthy into helping the

poor. He did this by stating that if the wealthy were not going to

help the poor, they might as well just eat the children so they

could have food.

On page 614 it says, “…best audience for “A Modest Proposal”

was the upper class – a group of people who had the ability to

make changes for the better…”

IDENTIFY:

The Irish were so poor in the 1700’s because of a famine that

they were experiencing. They had to move from their home in

Ireland to places such as Canada, America, and the UK to try to

better their lives. They were extremely poor to start with, and

when they moved it was no different. They were discriminated

against, they were poor, and they had nothing that they could do

about that. That is why Swift wanted to shock the wealthy into

helping the poor Irish people, because there was no other way to

help them.

COMPARE & CONTRAST:

This view of society to Chaucer’s view of society;• Swift believed that the wealthy people were bad because they would not listen to him

when he asked for their assistance in helping the poor, when they could obviously help tremendously.

• Chaucer believed that there were a lot of bad people in society, and he openly criticized them in “The Canterbury Tales”. He criticized a wide variety of people, from church people to common people. He described people from the Friar, who was a greedy and sinful priest, to the Wife of Bath, who was a woman who married 5 different men. These two people are very different, so that shows how Chaucer criticizes all types of people.

How are they similar? They both criticized the upper class/wealthy people in their

societies, and how they did not care for the poor.

How are they different? Chaucer did not go nearly as far as Swift did when

criticizing people. Chaucer simply pointed out that everyone had flaws, while Swift

suggested that people should eat children, just to get the wealthy people’s

attention.

COMPARE & CONTRAST:

These societies to American society:• Swift & Chaucer’s societies: Both of these societies were corrupt in their

own ways. “The Canterbury Tales” showed many different types of flaws within many different types of people (such as the friar, the wife of Bath, etc.). “A Modern Proposal” mainly focused on the flaws of the wealthy such as their greed and self-centeredness. So, both were corrupt.

• American society is definitely corrupt. There is a lot of crime, war, and poverty going on in today’s society. In complete honesty, our society is just messed up, much like Chaucer’s society and Swift’s society. Every society has it’s flaws, and not only do Chaucer and Swift show that, but our own society shows that as well.

How are they similar? They are both corrupt and flawed.

How are they different? The types of crimes and wars going on are not

quite the same. For example, I highly doubt that people go around today

swindling money from people because of pardons like the pardoner did.

COMPARE & CONTRAST (WHAT WE THINK) :

We side with Chaucer more, simply because he does

not only point out the flaws of one social group. Swift

only shows the flaws of the wealthy, and we do not

believe that all wealthy people are selfish. Chaucer

showed more variety in who he criticized, and we

believe that this applies more to today’s society

because more than one social class is flawed.

EVALUATE:1300’s society in “The Canterbury Tales”:

“The Canterbury Tales” shows that the society of that time was extremely flawed.

Chaucer showed that everyone had flaws. He did this by describing many different

people within different social classes. He showed how much respect depended on

their social class. For instance, the Friar was a horrible man, he got girls pregnant

and he was greedy, yet he was respected just because he was a part of the church.

In “The Canterbury Tales” Chaucer writes, “He was an easy man in penance-

giving, Where he could hope to make a decent living.”

This means that the Friar charged money at the confessions, only because he

knew he would make a lot of money from it. This shows how greedy people can be.

EVALUATE:1700’s society in “A Modest Proposal”:

Swift concentrated more on the fact that the wealthy were self-centered. He showed the

flaws that the wealthy had, making it seem like the poor people did not have flaws. He

made the poor people out to be the victims and the wealthy to be the villains, which, in a

way, was correct. The poor had no way to help themselves, and the rich had the means to

help them, but they would not. He had to go to great lengths to get their attention, which

is another example of how self-centered the wealthy people of that time were.

In “A Modest Proposal” Swift writes, “… crowded with beggars of the female sex,

followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for

an alms.”

This was saying that the poor had to walk around the city and beg for money, yet the rich

would not spare any. The streets were crowded and all the poor, even children, had to beg

for money.

EVALUATE:

Society in the 1300’s:

In the 1300’s it was early medieval times and

English society began to rapidly change.

Economic times became to get better along with

health.

During this time wealthier people looked down

upon the poor and treated them very badly.

EVALUATE:

Society in the 1700’s:

In the 1700’s the women had hard jobs keeping up with the

house hold and it was very unappreciated.

Men and women had very high social pressure to get

married. They usually got married at 13 or 14 years of age.

Marriage was for economic benefit back in these times.

Also in this time period poor people were looked down upon

by the wealthy. It was a demeaning to the society.

EVALUATE:

We think that society had gotten (better or worse?)

We think the society hasn’t gotten better or worse

between these times and this is said because people

during these times still treat the poor just as bad.

PERSONALIZE:

You can easily find people like the wealthy people that were

described in Swift’s essay. There are many celebrities that get caught

up in the fact that they are rich and famous that they do not seem to

care for others at all. For example, Lindsey Lohan, Britney Spears,

and Amy Winehouse are all examples of people who got too caught

up in their fame. They all ended up doing drugs and pretty much

ruining their lives (one quite literally) because they were too caught

up in their lifestyle. They did not care about what people would think

of them or how it would affect others, they did what they wanted to

do and they had to pay the consequences.

PERSONALIZE:

It is also quite easy to find people like the people that were

described in “The Canterbury Tales”, even more so than the

people described in “A Modest Proposal”. Almost anyone can

fit into the criticism that Chaucer described. There are

money-hungry people everywhere like the Pardoner, there are

hypocritical people like the Friar, and there are people that

get married a lot like the Wife of Bath. One could just step out

their front door and see someone like this easily.

WORK CITED

"The History of English: Early Modern English." Rice

University. Web. 25 Mar. 2012.

<http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Histengl/emode.html>.

“What Was the Social Structure in the 1300's - Medieval

Europe?" WikiAnswers. Answers. Web. 25 Mar. 2012.

<http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_the_social_structure

_in_the_1300's_-_medieval_Europe>.