Relations of A Modest Proposal to contemporary times In the essay A Modest Proposal, written by Jonathan Swift, satire is used to talk about important issues such as starvation. He uses sarcasm in his description of the French and British aristocracy's attitudes at the time. He wrote about how the poor should sell their children in order to make money.
His ideas relate to contemporary times because Swift wrote that poverty shouldn't be such an issue, yet people were starving to death. If the rich gave up some of their wealth to help the poor and the government helped out the poor, then there wouldn't be such a problem of starvation and poverty.
"I grant this food"ævery proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children" (Swift 804).
He wrote about how the rich keep trying to get richer.
Image taken from page 10 of 'The Works of Jonathan...
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift at the Deanery of St. Patrick's, il...They use the poor instead of helping them out. If they use the children of the poor as well it isn't any worse than using the adults. What he is saying is an understatement but it gets his point across.
""æsome people might be apt to censure such a practice"æas a little bordering upon cruelty"æ" (Swift 805).
He wrote about how people might think that it's a horrible thing to eat children, but it isn't really worse than using them and their parents. The way things were in the time period of Swift the rich just use the poor to get work done and don't help them out if they are ever in need of help. In modern day times it isn't quite as bad but the rich do try to take advantage of the poor so that they can get richer, but now the...