History Literature / AModestProposal

''A Modest Proposal'' ([[LongTitle full title]]: ''A Modest Proposal For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to The Publick'') was written in 1729 by Irish satirist Creator/JonathanSwift. It starts off like a modern essay detailing the hardships of the Irish people who are living in poverty and how [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishQuestion the current means of fixing the problem]] are inadequate. Then Swift presents his own idea, ostensibly relayed from an "American friend":

* LongTitle: One would imagine an actually modest proposal would have a much terser title.

* HypocriticalHumor: Swift regrets that he cannot contribute to the scheme, as his youngest child is nine, and his wife is already past her childbearing years. A friend suggested the selling and eating of children between twelve and fourteen, and Swift decided that this suggestion may be bordering on cruelty, which he is ''strictly'' against.

%%* GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

Many people found Swift's little joke about [[BlackComedyCannibalism how the poor could sell their children to the rich for food]] to be [[{{Pun}} in poor taste.]] Others were [[DudeNotFunny shocked and appalled]]. Some thought it should be [[StealthParody seriously considered]]. Those two [[PoesLaw didn't get the joke.]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: Part of the reason some people miss the satire is that Swift precedes the eponymous proposal with an elaborate insistence that he's [[BlatantLies being completely serious.]]

* WritersCannotDoMath: Swift says that one fourth of the children saved for breeding should be male, and that "one male will be sufficient to serve four females." If one fourth of the children are male, each would have to "serve" three, not four females. [[PoesLaw It could just be part and parcel of the satire, though, for all we know. ]]

* StealthParody: It is arguably the most famous Stealth Parody, and in some ways the TropeCodifier (although there remain many academics who maintain that it was intended seriously, attributing it to Swift's declining mental health). It's so intricate that it wasn't recognized as such for some time. It helped that the British reading public was so convinced of its correctness in disdaining the Irish that [[EvilCannotComprehendGood they couldn't see that Swift was attacking that very conviction]].

* AcceptableTargets:
** The Irish were Acceptable Targets for the English. Penned by an Irishman. By a side-effect, eating the Irish will mean reducing the number of Catholics. Everyone wins! And the idiotic youth of the upper class who [[UpperClassTwit contribute in no way to society]] -- they can be grilled, too.
** The English. The Proposal takes the attitudes of the English (let's strip them of their rights, steal their land, burn what they have left, then whine about how poor and lazy they are) and takes them to their logical conclusion. Since we already treat the Irish like animals, why don't we eat them?
** Portraying the Proposal as a combination of ideas from an American and the cannibalistic practices of Formosa (modern-day Taiwan) is backhanded criticism of how both groups were dismissed as barbaric by European society.

->''"A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout."''

* PeopleFarm: Since we already seem to treat the poor this way, Swift argues, why not go the rest of the way and eat them?

* BlackComedyCannibalism: Possibly the UrExample. The work calls for poor Irish to sell their young children as food for wealthy English gentlemen, so they are no longer a burden to society. He was satirizing some prevailing attitudes toward the poor and the Irish in contemporary (1700s) English society. He goes into some detail in suggestions for the preparation and cooking of such children, and the economic "benefits" of such an arrangement for all involved (who are still living of course).

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Most readers are so shocked at the thesis of infant cannibalism that they miss the detail about disproportionate culling of boys, since "one male will be sufficient to serve four females" and most poor babies are born out of wedlock anyway.

* StealthParody: It is the arguably the most famous Stealth Parody, and in some ways the TropeCodifier (although there remain many academics who maintain that it was intended seriously, attributing it to Swift's declining mental health). It's so intricate that it wasn't recognized as such for some time. It helped that the British reading public was so convinced of its correctness in disdaining the Irish that [[EvilCannotComprehendGood they couldn't see that Swift was attacking that very conviction]].

Needless to say many people found Swift's little joke about [[BlackComedyCannibalism how the poor could sell their children to the rich for food]] to be [[{{Pun}} in poor taste.]] Others were [[DudeNotFunny shocked and appalled]]. Some thought it should be [[StealthParody seriously considered]]. Those two [[PoesLaw didn't get the joke.]]

* BreadEggsMilkSquick: It ''starts out'' normally enough...

* EatsBabies: What Swift modestly proposes, as described in the page quotes for this trope and this page:

''A Modest Proposal'' (full title: ''A Modest Proposal For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to The Publick'') was written in 1729 by Irish satirist Creator/JonathanSwift. It starts off like a modern essay detailing the hardships of the Irish people who are living in poverty and how [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishQuestion the current means of fixing the problem]] are inadequate. Then Swift presents his own idea, ostensibly relayed from an "American friend":

* HeroicSelfDeprecation: The ideas that the author advances as potentially good but practically useless schemes for improving the conditions of the Irish are all ideas that Swift himself had advanced, at one time or another.
** Although given what the narrator suggests instead, the reader is clearly not encouraged to side with him in any way, so it’s not really a case of this.

* SarcasmMode: Near the end, Swift lists out a series of efficient, intelligent measures that would ''actually'' help the entire Irish economy (and the Scots and English economies, come to that), and adds that of course these are entirely too outlandish to ''ever'' work.

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

Needless to say many people found Swift's little joke about [[BlackComedy how the poor could sell their children to the rich for food]] to be [[{{Pun}} in poor taste.]] Others were [[DudeNotFunny shocked and appalled]]. Some thought it should be [[StealthParody seriously considered]]. Those two [[PoesLaw didn't get the joke.]]

* BlackComedy: A shining example of the genre.
* BlackComedyCannibalism: Possibly the UrExample.

* EatsBabies: What Swift modestly proposes.

* StealthParody: So intricate that it wasn't recognized as such for some time. It helped that the British reading public was so convinced of its correctness in disdaining the Irish that [[EvilCannotComprehendGood they couldn't see that Swift was attacking that very conviction]].

''A Modest Proposal'' (full title: ''A Modest Proposal For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to The Publick'') was written in 1729 by Irish satirist Creator/JonathanSwift. It starts off like a modern essay detailing the hardships of the Irish people who are living in poverty and how [[/UsefulNotes/TheIrishQuestion the current means of fixing the problem]] are inadequate. Then Swift presents his own idea, ostensibly relayed from an "American friend":

''A Modest Proposal'' (full title: ''A Modest Proposal For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to The Publick'') was written in 1729 by Irish satirist Creator/JonathanSwift. It starts off like a modern essay detailing the hardships of the Irish people who are living in poverty and how the current means of fixing the problem are inadequate. Then Swift presents his own idea, ostensibly relayed from an "American friend":

%%* DontExplainTheJoke

* HypocriticalHumor: Swift regrets that he cannot contribute to these scheme, as his youngest child is nine, and his wife is already past her childbearing years. A friend suggested the selling and eating of children between twelve and fourteen, and Swift decided that this suggestion may be bordering on cruelty, which he is ''strictly'' against.
* KillThePoor: More like, "Make The Poor Sell Their Children For Food," but you get the idea.
* LetsSeeYouDoBetter: A passage near the end can be summarized as, "Parliament claims to care about the poor, but when the subject is raised, nobody seems to have any good ideas. Now, I've presented mine. If you don't like it, come up with a better one."

* RefugeInAudacity: Gives the satire a good bit of its effect.

* WritersCannotDoMath: Swift says that one fourth of the children saved for breeding should be male, and that "one male will be sufficient to serve four females." If one fourth of the children are male, each would have to "serve" three, not four females.

* SarcasmMode: Near the end, Swift lists out a series of efficient, intelligent measures that would ''actually'' help the entire Irish economy (and the English economy, come to that), and adds that of course these are entirely too outlandish to ''ever'' work.

* StealthParody: So intricate that it wasn't recognized as such for some time. It helped that the British reading public was so convinced of its correctness in disdaining the Irish that they couldn't see that Swift was attacking that very conviction.