Literary Analysis of Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal

In A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift protests the egregious manner in which the English treat the Irish. He is attempting to change the minds of his audience to shame them for their attitude towards the Irish. He is suggesting that eating the Irish children are the solution to the crowded streets of England. Swift, throughout the text, treats the infants and mothers as livestock, delicacies to be eaten by the English, satirizing how they think …

…mind of the reader. The reader at this point finds himself at a fork in the road, does he allow himself to absorb this opinion or does he find it so repulsive as to realize the injustice in all his other prejudices against the Irish? Swift hopes that his audience is in good mental health and chooses the latter, and thereby accomplishing his original intent of ridding the English of their "racism" towards the Irish.