A modest proposal, to save the image of the country: Examine the oppression of the Irish poorA modest proposal: to prevent the children of the poor from Ireland to be a The burden of their parents or their country and their contribution to the benefit of the public was published in 1729 by Jonathan Swift. It was published during an economic crisis and a period when the English were developing great discontent with the Irish. The Irish were facing a devastating economic crisis during the 1700s. The Irish were facing famine and Swift wanted to expose the unhappy lives of the poor so that the country would work to change everyone's lives. The English were aware of everything that was happening and were not happy with the severity of their condition. Swift wanted change; he wanted to save the county before the oppression of the poor reached the extreme. Soon, Swift took action and announced his proposal to the Irish to come up with better alternatives. The proposal was to eat babies in order to help the devastating economy the poor were facing. In his proposal, he mocks the authority of the British authorities, seen as an oppressive regime responsible for the suffering of the Irish, and also tries to find a way to arouse a feeling of sympathy in his audience by using graphic images and mockery. Swift uses graphic images to grab her audience's attention so they can develop alternative solutions rather than her own proposal. With the use of graphic images, Swift makes cannibalism very scandalous, causing a strong emotional appeal in order to make the Irish and English react. with more maturity when faced with situations. Swift aimed to help eliminate the terrible fate in the middle of the paper... without abusing what they were given, which in this case was power and wealth. Work Cited Swift, Jonathan. “A modest proposal: to prevent the children of the poor in Ireland from being a burden to their parents or their country, and to make them beneficial to the public.” 1729. Rpt. in Current Issues and Lingering Questions. Ed. Sylvan Barnett and Hugo Bedau. Boston, MA: St. Martin's 1996. 111-117. Bone, Martyn. "Historical summary of Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries." Our family history. Martyn Bone, March 11, 2006. Web. May 17, 2010. .Swift, Jonathan. “A modest proposal.” Great literature online. 1997-2010http://swift.classicauthors.net/ModestProposal/ (May 17, 2010). Wikipedia contributors. “Jonathan Swift.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, May 17. 2010. Internet. May 18. 2010.