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Jonathan Swift
J
onachan Swift is the princi- pal prose writer of the early eighteenth century and Eng- land's greatest satirist. He was an Anglo-Irishman, a label applied to people who live in Ireland but who regard them- selves as more English than Irish. Swift was born in Dublin of English parents, seven months after the death of his father. Abducted by his nurse, he spent three years in England before being returned to Ireland, where he was cared for by his uncle. Although Swift was poor, his prosperous uncle paid for his education. Hoping to ad- vance himself, Swift went to England and be- came secretary co Sir William Temple, a distant relative-a writer, a wealthy country gentleman, and a statesman. The job gave Swift the opportunity to mingle with public figures, read, and look about for a more im- portant and permanent position. Unfortu- nately, nothing came of Temple's patronage. After several years of disappointment, Swift took his life into his own hands, obtained a master's degree from Oxford University, and was ordained a priest in the Church of Ireland, a counterpart to the Church of England. Swift seemed fated to live in Ireland, although he desperately wanted a career in England. Now, as a priest, he was assigned to remote parishes in the Irish countryside. To Swift, Ireland seemed a cu ltural desert, inhab- ited mainly by Roman Catholic natives and Scottish Presbyterian immigrants- people whom Swift neither admired nor respected. He escaped to England whenever possible. Swift hoped to be made an English bishop, but
Jonathan Swi~ (c. 1718) by Charles Jervas. Oil on canvas (481/i'' x 381/4''). By Co un:esy of the N ational Po rtrait Gallery, Lo ndo n.
his political friE;_nds fell from power, and the only appointment he could obtain was back in Ire- land, as the dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. Swift returned to his native city, was installed as dean, and held that office for the remaining thirty years of his life. Swift did not write for fame or money; most of his books and pamphlets were pub- lished anonymously. Nor did he write simply to divert or entertain. Swift's aim in writing was co improve human conduct, to make people more decent and humane. Gulliver's Travels ( 1726) at- tacks many different varieties of human misbe- havior, vice, and folly. Swift even became an Irish patriot in his pamphlets, defending the Irish against the oppressive policies of their English rulers. The most famous of his pamphlets is A Modest Proposal ( 1729). In a letter to Pope, Swift justified these pro-Irish writings: "What I do is owing to perfect rage and resentment, and the mortifying sight of slavery, folly, and baseness about me, among which I am forced co live." Swift's last days were sad: He suffered from a disease of che inner ear which made him dizzy, deaf, and disoriented. He was buried in his cathedral in Dublin, where groups of tourists now pause every day of the year co read his epitaph, which ends: "Go, traveler, and imitate, if you can, one who strove with all his strength to champion liberty."
For Independent Reading
Read Swift's satiric novel:
Jonathan Swift 427
Before You Read
A Modest Proposal
Reading Standard 2. Analyze the way in which clarity of meaning is affected by the patterns of organization, hi er arch ica I structures, repetition of the main ideas, syntax, and word choice in the text. Reading Standard 3. Analyze the ways in which irony achieves specific rhetorical purposes.
'
Make the Connection
What if nobody listened to the good ideas you proposed for solving one of society's most pressing problems? How could you get people's attention? Jonathan Swift found himself in this predicament. In the late 1720s, Irish harvests had been so poor for several years that farmers couldn't afford to pay the rents demanded by their English landlords. Beggars and starving children ap- peared everywhere. Money was in short supply, and most of it was shipped off to England. England's policies kept the Irish poor. In response to this problem, Swift wrote a pamphlet that offered an outrageous solu- tion to these problems of famine and human misery-perhaps the most outrageous solu- tion ever offered. His purpose was to use shocking satire to make English society con- scious of an unspeakable wrong-and, hope- fully, to correct it.
Literary Focus
Verbal Irony Verbal irony occurs when a writer or speaker says one thing but really means something quite different-usually the direct · opposite. In speech, tone of voice alerts lis- teners to irony. Let's say you have a bad case of the flu, for instance. and someone asks, "How are you?" Your response-- "Marvelous!"-spoken in an unmistakably sarcastic cone. makes your irony clear. Since writers cannot depend on cone of voice to convey sarcasm, they often pile irony upon irony until no attentive reader could possibly miss the point. Swift's essay is a classic ex- ample of verbal irony extended to its limit.
Verbal irony is a contrast between what is said and what is really meant.
For more on Irony, see the Handbook of
Literary and Historical Terms. I
Reading Skills ~
Recognizing Persuasive Techniques Swift's essay is perhaps the most famous and most skilled example of persuasive writing used for the purpose of satire. As you read, watch for examples of these persuasive techniques: logical appeals (using evidence such as facts or statistics to support a posi- tion), emotional appeals (passages that use words that arouse strong feelings), and ethical appeals (passages that establish the writer's qualifications and sincerity). Use the questions and comments alongside key pas- sages as a guide to your reading.
Trinity College, Dublin.
(Right) The centr>il • ;, • soup depot. Barrack. ·- Street, Cork, Ireland ( 1847). The Illustr ated London News Picture Library.
(^428) i,@§#1 The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century
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mJl1@~(@-~~ (C§)OO©J~~~~il
Jonathan Swift
FOR PREVENTING THE CHILDREN OF POOR PEOPLE IN IRELAND FROM BEI NG A BURDEN TO THEIR PARENTS OR COUNTRY, AND FOR MAKING THEM BENEFICIAL TO THE PUBLIC
I
t is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, 1 or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or
six children, all fo rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms.^2
These mothers instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling, to beg sustenance for their helpless infants, who, as they grow up either turn thieves for want^3 of work, or leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender^4 in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes. 5 I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of chil- dren, in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the king- dom, a very great additional grievance; and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children sound and useful members of the commonwealth would deserve so well of the public, as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation. 0 But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for the children of professed beggars; it is of a much greater extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain age, who are born of par- ents in effect as little able to support them, as those who demand our charity in the streets. As to my own part, having turned my thoughts, for many years, upon this important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of other projectors,^6 I have always found them grossly mistaken in their computation. It is true a child, just dropped from its dam,7 may be sup- ported by her milk, for a solar year^8 with little other nourishment, at most not above the value of two shillings, which the mother may certainly get, or the value in scraps, by her lawful occupation of begging, and it is ex- actly at one year old that I propose to provide for them, in such a manner, as, instead of being a charge upon their parents, or the parish, or wanting food and raiment^9 for the rest of their lives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding and partly to the clothing of many thousands. 6
I. town n.: Dublin.
2. importuning. .. alms: asking passersby for a handout. 3. want n.: lack; need. 4. the Pretender: James Edward ( 1688-1766), son of England's last Catholic king, the deposed James II (1633-1701 ). James Edward kept trying to gain the throne.
- sell •.. Barbadoes: go to the West Indies and work as indentured servants.
- projectors n. pl.: speculators; schemers.
- dam 11.: mother (ordinarily used only of anii:nals).
- solar year: from the fir st day of spring in one year to the last day of winter in the next.
- raiment (ra'm.int) n.: clothing.
Vocabulary sustenance (sus'ta• n.1ns) n.:food or money to support life.
R What problem does the
II speaker describe in the
first two paragraphs?
R At what age does the
II speaker suggest that
children are ready to be made useful to society through his plan?
(Opposite) Bridget O'Donnel of West Cork and her children. The Illustrated London News Pkrure Library.
Jonathan Swift 431
An Irish cabin. National Library of Ireland. Dublin.
good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends, and when the famil y dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter. 0
The speaker "humbly" offers his proposal. What horrible plan is he actually proposing?
I have reckoned upon a medium, that a child
just born will weigh twelve pounds, and in a solar year if tolerably nursed increaseth to twenty-eight pounds. I grant this food will be somewhat dear, 21 and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured 22 most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children. Infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March, and a little before and after, for we are told by a grave author,^23 an eminent French physician, that fish being a prolific diet, there are more children born in Roman Catholic countries about nine months after Lent, than at any other season, therefore reckoning a year after Lent, the markets will be more glutted than usuaJ, because the number of popish2^4 infants, is at least three to one in this
- dear adj.: expensive.
- devoured v.: made poor by charging high rents. 23. grave author: The French satirist Frarn;ois Rabelai s. His work is comic, not "grave." 24. popish adj.: derogatory term meaning "Roman Catholic."
kingdom, and there- fore it will have one other collateral ad- vantage by lessening the number of pa- pists among us. 0
Re-read this paragraph carefully.
R What bias does the speaker
II of this essay reveal?
I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar's child (in which list I reckon all cot- tagers, 25 laborers, and four-fifths of the farmers) to be about two shillings per annum, 26 rags in- cluded, and I believe no gentleman would repine to give ten shillings for the carcass of a good fat
child, which, as I have said will make four dishes
of excellent nutritive meat, when he hath only some particular friend, or his own family to dine with him. Thus the squire will learn to be a good landlord, and grow popular among his tenants, the mother will have eight shillings net
profit, and be fit
for work until she produceth another child. a
n In discussing the eco-
11 nomics of his proposal,
what kind of appeal is the speaker making?
Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess
the times require) may flay 27 the carcass; the skin of which, artificially^28 dressed, will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen. As to our city of Dublin, shambles 29 may be appointed for this purpo se, in the most conve- nient parts of it, and butchers we may be as-
sured will not be wanting, although I rather
recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife, as we do roasting pigs. O
n When the speaker sug-
11 gests "dressing" children
"hot from the knife," what ef- fect does he expect his word choice to create?
- cottagers n. pl.: tenant farmers.
- per annum: Latin for "by the year"; annually.
- flay v.: remove the skin of.
- artificially adv.: with great artifice; skillfully.
- shambles n.: slaughterhouse.
Vocabulary
glutted (glut'id) v. used as adj.: overfilled.
Jonathan Swift 433
A very worthy person, a true lover of his coun- try, and whose virtues I highly esteem, was h1tely pleased, in discoursing on this matter, to offer a refinement upon my scheme. He said, that many gentlemen of this kingdom, having of lated<.>- stroyed their deer, he conceived that the want of venison might be well supplied by the bodies of young lads and maidens, not exceeding fourteen years of age, nor under twelve, so great a number of both sexes in every country being now ready to starve, for want of work and scrvice:'^0 and these to be disposed of by their par- ents if alive, or otherwise by their nearest relations. But with due def- erence to so excellent a friend, and so deserving a patriot, l cannot be altogether in his sentiments, for as to the males, my American acquain- tance assured me from frequent ex-
- perience, that their flesh was generally tough and lean, like that of our schoolboys, by continual exer- cise, and their taste disagreeable,
An Irish peasant.
my frirnd, that in his country when an y young person happened to be put to death, the execu- tioner sold the carcass to pt'rsons of quality, as a prime dainty, and that, in his time, the body of a plump girl of fifteen, who was crucified for an attempt to poison the emperor, was sold to his imperial majesty's prime minister of state, and other great mandarins·] of the court, in joints·q from tl1e gibbct;^15 at four hundred crow;1s. Nei- ther indeed can I deny, that if the same use were made of sevenil plump young girls in this town, who, without one single groat to their fortunes, cannot stir abroad without a chair,·^1 (\ and appear at the playhouse, and assemblies in foreign fineries, which they never will pay fr1r; the kingdom would not be the worse. Some persons of a desponding spirit are in great concern about that vast number of poor people, who are aged, diseased, or maimed, and I have been desired to employ my thoughts what course ma y he taken, to ease th e nation of so grievous an ' enrnmbrance. But I am not in the
and to fatten them would not an-
swer the charge. Then as to the fe-
males, it would, I think with humble submission,·H be a loss to the public, because they soon would become breeders themselves: And besides it National^ L,brar-,^ of^ Ireland. Dublin.
least pain upon that matter, because it is ve ry well known, that the y arc every day dying, and rotting, by is not improbable that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such a practice ( although indeed very unjustly) as a little bordering upon cruelty, which, I confess, hath always been with me the strongest objection against any project, how well soever intended. But in order to justify my friend, he confrsscd that this expedient was put into his head by the famous Sallmanaazor,'^2 a native of the island Formosa, who came from thence to London, above twenty years ago, and in conversation told
- service 11.: empl orm cnt as s,•rvants. 3 I. with humble submission: with all due respect to tho~e who hold such opinions. 32. Sallmanaaror: (;,•orge l's:ilmanar.ar (c. lo79-J 7o3J, a Frenchman who pretemfrd to be from Formosa, an old Portugucs,· name li>r ·1:1iw,lll. I !is writings were fr.1uduknt.
mid, and famine, and filth, and vermin/^7 as fast
as can be reasonably expected. And as to tht' youngt'r laborers they are now in almost as
- mandarins ( man 'd.")· rinzl 11. pl.: officials. Tlw term comes from 11111111lc1ri111, the Portugu c~e word de- scribing high -ran king oflicials in th,· Chinl'S<' Fmpire, with w hid1 the Portugut'se traded. 34. joints 11. pl.: large cuts of meat, including the bone. 35. gibbet (j ib'itl 11.: gallows. 36. chair 11.: seda n chair; a cove rt'd sc,lt carri ed by ~ervants.
- vermin 11. pl.: pests such a~ li (c, fleas, and b<'llhugs.
Vocabulary deference (def'ar-ans) n.: respect. scrupulous (skroop'ya • las) adj.: extremely careful and precise in deciding what is right or wrong. censure (sen'shar) v.: condemn. expedient (ek-spe'de, anc) n.: convenient means to an end.
(^434) CiM§§I• The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century (^) .... ~ ..
Many other advantages might be enumer- ated. For instance, the addition of some thou- sand carcasses in our exportation of barreled beef. The propagation of swine's flesh, and im - prove ment in the art of making good bacon, so
much wanted amon g us by the great destruction
of pigs, too frequent at our tables, which are no way comparable in taste, or magnificence to a wdl-grown, fat yea rling child, which roasted whole will make a considerable figure at a Lord Mayor's feast, or any other public entertain- ment. But thi s, and many others I omit being studious of brevity. Supposing that ~1ne thousand families in this city, would be constant customers for infants' flesh, besides others who might have it at merry meetings, particularly weddings and christen- ings, I compute that Dublin would take off an- nually about twenty thou sand carcasses, and the rest of the kingdom ( where probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper) the remaining eighty thousand. I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unkss it s hould he urged that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom. This I freely own , cind it was indeed one principal design in offering it to the world. I desire the reader will observe, th;lt I calculate my remedy for this one individu,ll kingdom of! rdand, and for no other that ever was, is, or, I think, ever can be upon earth. 4Il>
®
R What objection does the
IJI speaker anticipate? How
does he answer this objection?
Therefore let no man talk to me of other expcdi- ents:·•x Of taxing v11r absentee/'' at Jin· shillings 11
p()1111d; uf 11si11g 11citl,er clothes, 11or ho11schold
Jim1iture, except what is lf vur ow11 growth 1111d
111,11111f11ct11re; <futtcrly n:iccti11g the 11111tcrials and
48. other expedients: At Olll" tim l' or anothl' r, Swift had advocated all thl'sc ml'asures for the relief of Ire- l.ind. hut they werl' all ignorl'd by lhl' go vernml' nt. This s.:ction was italicii'l'd in all l'ditinns printt:d during Swift's lifl'lime to indicate that Sw ift mad l' thl'sc proposals si ncerely rather th an ironically. 49. absentees 11. pl. : English hmdown en, whu refu~l'd to li vl' on thl·ir Iris h prop er ty.
i11str11111mts tho! pro111utcfcJl"Cig11 l11x11ry; 4rnring
the cxpc11sin•11css o(pridc, w111it}', idleness, and
ga111i11g'^0 i11 our wo111c11; lfi11troduci11g a vein ()f
porsi111011y:" prndc11cc, a11d 1c111pcm11 cc; o(/et1m-
i11g to lot'C our co1111/ t')', wherein we d~/Tcr cw·
from Lap/1111dcrs, and the i11lwbita11ts l~f Topi11t1111-
[100;".! ()fq11itti11,c;: 011r n11i11111si ties, ,111d.fi1ctio11s;'^3
11or act till)' /011gcr like the fews, 1i,/10 were m11rdcr-
i11g one 011othcr 111 the ,,cry 1110111cnt their city'·^1
ivcis 1akc11; cf /icing II little rn11tio11s 1101 to se ll our
co1111try and conscic11ccs for 11otl1i11g; o{ tce1 chi11g
la11dlords to ltm'c at lc11st one degree o( mercy
towc1rd t/1cir trnn111s. Lastly tfp1111i11g II sp iril 4
ho11cs1y, industry, muf skill i11to our shopkeeper.-.,
wlw, if II resolution a>11ld now be Jt1kc11 to l111y
011/y our 11t1livc goods, would i111111cdiatdy 1111itc
to chcllt and ex,,cr-"^5 11po11 us i11 the price, the
lllCtlS/1/"C, tllld the
good11css, 110r co11/rl
ever )'Ct be lmlllght
/() 11111kc 011efi1ir
proposal tfJ11st
dc11li11g, though
o.ftc11 t111d t'IIJ'IICS!ly
i111'itcd to it. 4D
This italicized section is a list of ideas that Swift sees as reasonable and actually proposed for Ireland.
R Determine where each
IJI separate idea begins, and
then paraphrase each idea. Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the like expedi ents, till he hath at least a glimpse of hope , that there will ever be some he arty and si ncere attempt to put them in practice.
- gaming i·. usnl .i s 11.: gambl ing.
- parsimony ( piir.,-rrnYnl' ) 11.: thriltin.:ss; cconom)'.
- Tnpinamboo: '-.wift i, referring to a rl·gion of lk.11.il populated Lw n.itiw pt:opk , wl!t:ctiwll' cal hi thl' Tupin ,unb~i. Ht:n: Swift suggl'sts that if Bra7i!ian pl'opks and Laplanders ca n low th l•i r ,l'l' min gly inho~pitable );rnds, thl' lrish should low lrt:h1nd. 53. factions 11. pl.: political grnu p, that work ,1g,1in~t thl' inll'rl· ,h of other ,uch groups or ,1gain,t the main lmd)" of gon-rnnll'llt. 54. their city: [l'n1"1km, which tht· Roman l'lllpcrnr Titu~ d.:strnyl'd in A. I 1. 70 whik Jewish factio ns fought onl' ,mothl'r.
- exact 1·.: fore.: payml'nt. Vocabulary brevity (brev'a-te) n.: being brief. animosities (an' a. mas' a· te z) n. pl.: h os tilities; violent hatreds or resentments.
436 i3@@i The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century (^) ....;,..
Judy O'Donnel's "home" under the bridge at Donnbeg, Clare, Ireland ( 1849). The Illustrated London News Picture Library.
But as to myself, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal, which as it is wholly new, so it hath some thing solid and real, of no expense and little trouble, full in our own power, and whereby we can incur no danger in disobliging 56 England. For this kind of commodity will not bear exporta- tion, the flesh being of too tender a consistence, to admit a long continuance in salt, although perh aps I could name a country, 57 which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it. After all I am not so violently bent upon my own op inion, as to reject any offer, proposed by wise men, which shall be found equally innocent,
56. disobliging v. used as 11.: offending. 57. a country: England.
cheap, easy, and effectual. But before something of that kind shall be advanced in contradiction to my scheme, and offering a better, I desire the au- thor, or autho rs will be pleased maturely to con- sider two points. First, as things now stand, how they will be able to find food and raiment for a hundr ed thousand useless mouths and backs. And secondly, there being a round million of creatures in human figure, throughout this king- dom, whose whole subsistence^58 put into a com- mon stock would leave them in debt two millions of pounds sterling, adding those who are beggars by profession to the bulk of farmers, cottagers, and laborers, with their wives and chil- dren, who are beggars in effect; I desire those politicians, who dislike my overture, and may perhaps be so bold to attempt an answer, that they will first ask the parents of these mortals, whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food at a year old, in the manner I prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of misfor- tunes, as they have since gone through, by the oppression of landlords, the impossibility of pay- ing rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor clothes to cover them from inclemencies of weather, and the most inevitable prospect of entaili ng 59 the like, or great miseries, upon their breed forever. · I profess in the sincerity of my heart that I have not the least ·personal interest in endeavor- ing to prom ote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my coun- try, by advancing our trade, providing for in- fants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich. I have no children, by which I can pro- pose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past · childbearing. ® •
The speaker concludes with an ethical appeal to show that he is fair and trustworthy and has no ulterior motive.
s:-1 Identify the ironies in this
U concluding paragraph.
58. whole subsistence: all their possessions. 59. entailing v. used as n.: passing on to the next generation.
Jonathan Swift 437
L
We went to the air. Obviously. And no one could have foreseen the consequences, no one, not even if we'd gone out and generated a hun- dred environmental impact statements-it was just one of those things, a freak occurrence, and there's no defense against that. Not that I know of,anyway.... Caterpillars? Yes, Senator, that's correct. That was the first sign: caterpillars. But let me backtrack a minute here. You see, out in the bush they have these roofs made of thatched palm leaves-you'll see them in the towns too, even in Bintulu or Brunei-and they're really pretty effective, you'd be sur- prised. A hundred and twenty inches of rain, they've got to figure a way to keep it out of the hut, and for centuries, this was it. Palm leaves. Well, it was about a month after we sprayed for the final time and I'm sitting at my desk in the trailer thinking about the drainage project at Kuching, enjoying the fact that for the first time in maybe a year I'm not smearing mos- quitoes all over the back of my neck, when there's a knock at the door. It's this elderly gentleman, tattooed from head to toe, dressed only in a pair of running shorts-they love those shorts, by the way, the shiny material and the tight machine stitching, the whole country, men and women both, they can't get enough of them .... Anyway, he's the headman of the local village and he's very excited, something
about the roofs-atap, they call them. That 's
all he can say, atap, atap, over and over again.
It's raining, of course. It's always raining. So I shrug into my rain slicker, start up the 4 x 4,
and go have a look. Sure enough, all the a tap
roofs are collapsing, not only in his village but throughout the target area. The people are all huddled there in their running shorts, looking pretty miserable, and one after another the roofs keep falling in, it's bewildering, and gradually I realize the headman's diatribe has
Blue Fly by Robert Hooke. from Micrographia ( 1665). Rare Books and Manuscripts Division. The New York Public Library. Astor , Lenox and nlden Foundations.
begun to feature a new term I was unfamiliar with at the time-the word for caterpillar, as it turns out, in the Iban dialect. But who was to make the connection between three passes with the crop duster and all these staved-in roofs? Our people finally sorted it out a couple weeks later. The chemical, which, by the way, cut down the number of mosqu itoes expo- nentially, had the unfortunate side effect of killing off this little wasp-I've got the scien-
tific name for it somewhere in my report here,
if you're interested-that preyed on a type of caterpillar that in turn ate palm leaves. Well, with the wasps gone, the caterpillars hatched out with nothing to keep them in check and chewed the roofs to pieces, which was unfor- tunate, we admit it, and we had a real cost overrun on replacing those roofs with tin. .. but the people were happier, I think, in the long run, because, let's face it, no matter how tightly you weave those palm leaves, they're just not going to keep the water out like tin. Of course, nothing's perfect, and we had a lot of complaints about the rain drumming on the pane ls, people unable to sleep, and what-have-you .... Yes, sir, that's correct-the flies were next. Well, you've got to understand the magni- tude of the fly problem in Borneo, there's nothing like it here to compare it with, except maybe a garbage strike in New York. Every minute of every day you've got flies every- where, up your nose, in your mouth, your ears, your eyes, flies in your rice, your Coke, your Singapore sling, and your gin rickey. It's
Jonathan Swift 439
enough to ch-ive you to distraction, not to mention the diseases these things carry, from dysentery to typhoid to cholera and back round the loop again. And once the mosquito population was down, the flies seemed to breed up to fill in the gap- Borneo wouldn't be Borneo without some damned insect blackening the air. Of course, this was before our people had tracked down the problem with the caterpil- lars and the wasps and all of that, and so we figured we'd had a big success with the mos- quitoes, why not a series of ground sweeps, mount a fogger in the back of a Suzuki Brat, and sanitize the huts, not to mention the open sewers, which as you know are nothing but a breeding ground for flies, chiggers, and biting insects of every sort. At least it was an error of commission rather than omission. At least we were trying. I watched the flies go down myself. One day they were so thick in the trailer I couldn't even
find my paperwork, let alone attempt to get
through it, and the next they were collecting on the windows, bumbling around like they were drunk. A day later they were gone. Just like that. From a million flies in the trailer to none .... Well, no one could have foreseen that, Senator.
The geckos ate the flies, yes. You're all fa-
miliar with geckos, I assume, gentlemen? These are the lizards you've seen during your trips to Hawaii, very colorful, patrolling the houses for roaches and flies, almost like pets, but of course they 're wild animals, never lose sight of that, and just about as unsanitary as anything I can think of, except maybe flies. Yes, well don't forget, sir, we're viewing this with twenty-twenty hindsight, but at the time no one gave a thought to geckos or what they ate-they were just another fact of life in the tropics. Mosquitoes, lizards, scorpions,
leeches- you name it, they' ve got it. When the flies began piling up on the windowsills like drift, naturally the geckos feasted on them, stuffing them- selves till they looked like sausages crawling up the walls. Where before they moved so fast you could never be sure you'd seen them, now they waddled across the floor, laid around in the corners, clung to the air vents like mag- nets-and even then no one paid much atten- tion to them till they started turning belly- up in the streets. Believe me, we confirmed a lot of things there about the buildup of these products^5 as you move up the food chain and the efficacy-or lack thereof-of certain methods, no doubt about that .... The cats? That's where it got sticky, really sticky. You see, nobody really lost any sleep over a pile of dead lizards-though we did tests routinely and the tests confirmed what we'd expected, that is, the product had been concentrated in the geckos because of the number of contaminated flies they consumed. But li7ards are one thing and cats are another. These people really have an affection for their cats-no hou se, no hut, no matter how primi- tive, is without at least a couple of them. Mangy-looking things, long-legged and scrawny, maybe, not at all the sort of animal you'd sec here, but there it was: They loved their cats. Because the cats were functional, you understand-without them, the place would have been swimming in rodents inside of a week. You're right there, Senator, yes-that's exactly what happened. You see, the cats had a field day with these feeble geckos-you can imagine, if any of you have ever owned a cat, the kind of joy these
- these products: insecticides.
440 •@§• The Re stora tion and the Ei ghteent h Cent ury
Literary Response and Analysis
Reading Standard 2. Anal yze the way in wh ich clarity of meaning is affected by the patt erns of orga n izati o n, hierarchical structures, repetition of the mai n ideas, syntax, and word choice in the text. Reading Standard 3. Analyze the ways in which irony and the author's style achieve specific rhetori cal purpo se s. Reading Standanl 3. 7b Relate lit erary work s and author s to th e major th emes and issues of their eras.
Reading Check
I. Why does the speaker of A Modest Pro-
posal think the food he proposes is
"very proper for landlords"?
2. Why does the speaker reject the idea of selling and eating twelve- to four- teen-year-olds? 3. About midway in the pamphlet, the speaker lists the advantages of his pro- posal. What are the six principal advan- tages?
4. Describe the one objection that the
speaker anticipates to his proposal.
Interpretations
S. What is ironic in Swift's use of the
word modest to describe his proposal?
(In what sense is he using the word modest?) Why does the speaker express the hope that his plan "will not be liable to the least objection" just before he in- troduces it?
6. How would you state the purpose of this essay? Whom or what is Swift try- ing to reform? 7. How would you describe the tone of this essay? What evidence supports your interpretation? 8. Describe the speaker's real meaning when he asserts that England will not mind if Ireland kills and eats its babies. What element of satire is evident here? 9. Near the end of the pamphlet, the speaker lists "other expedients" that might help lessen the present distress in Ireland. Some of these options are very constructive. Why. then, does the speaker brush aside these ideas for reform in favor of this horrible proposal? I 0. Find places in the proposal where the speaker uses logical appeals to sup- port his suggestions. You may want to
consult your reading notes. JI£.
I I. Find sentences in which the speaker uses ethical appeals by describing himself favorably and claiming to pos- sess virtues that--<:onsidering the na- ture of his proposal- he could not possibly have. (Check your reading notes.) .ea. I 2. The speaker also uses emotional ap· peals to support his suggestions-in particular, ironic word choices that arouse strong feelings by equating human beings with animals. For exam- ple, early in the essay he speaks of a child as "dropped from its dam," lan- guage usually used only when speaking of animals. Where else does the speaker use emotionally loaded words that equate babies or their parents with ani-
mals? (Check your reading notes .) ..a_
13. How is Boyle's satire in "Top of the Food Chain" (see the Connection on page 438) similar to and different from Swift's proposal? In your response, con- sider the content, purpose, and lan- guage techniques used in each text 14. What other human disasters resulting from bureaucratic incompetence around the world could be targets for another "modest proposal"?
Evaluation
IS. Is Swift's irony effective in A Modest
Proposal, or does it risk being taken
seriously by readers and arousing nothing more than disgust or outrage at the author? Explain your th inking.
Writing
A New Modest Proposal Swift approached the subjects of corruption in England and poverty in Ireland from the point of view of a benevolent humanitarian. Pretend you are a modern social worker, educator. environmentalist, or military advi- sor to the president. Attack an evil you see
i,@h§ii The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century (^) ...;- •
