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The rotten society essay

The article “ A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift is a form of writing with irony as a way of presenting his grievances. In his writing, the author presents the problems faced by the poor in the 19th century in his home country Ireland. Speaking about the mode of writing, this article has no difference from the writings by most writers. At the beginning, the article concentrates on the problems facing the mother country of the author. Towards the end, he proposes solutions to the problems his fellow citizens are facing. A persuasive tone is evident through the whole article. The problems have been stated in a way that the inferred meaning is implied in the jokes. In the works of Jonathan Swift, the problems mentioned through the use of irony are poverty, greed and the lack of planning in the national government. He has mentioned mothers with dozens of children on the streets begging. Solutions to these problems are attained by the inducing of ideas from fellow citizens and support that is emanating from the subjects. In the rotten leadership styles, are there ways out of it? Reading this article, one will get the real situations that exist among the poor in sadness.

In the first instance, population of Ireland had skyrocketed. Issues of large population are shown as the center stage in the times. A large population is considered a liability or an asset to a country if the resources are enough. A large population is useful to provide industries with labor resources. The skills of the people of a country determine the output emanating from the population. In the writings of Swift, the popu8lation is presented as a liability. The people are not productive to cater for themselves. Beggars and criminals in the society become a liability to the coexistence of the people. Swift refer to the young generation of children as paupers and beggars sprawling the streets. This problem of uncontrolled population can be related to many of the world countries today. Other countries have a population deficit. The countries import labor from other countries that are adorned with the human resource. The writing shows the results of an exploding population.

The conflict between the Catholics and Christians in Ireland brought many problems to the poor. Treatment of the peasants and poor beggars by the leadership style in Ireland show how rotten it was. Jonathan Swift’s writing talks of the problems that were faced by the population of Ireland in the early 18th century. During the times of Swift, there was a conflict between the Catholics and the Protestants. The law on order enforcement was passed in this period. The consequences of the law became wrat instead of helping smooth coexistence among the population. The people of Ireland had to abide by the lay as was stipulated. At this period, the population of Ireland exploded. As Swift put it, the poor increased and multiplied in numbers. They overflowed in the streets begging. The conflict between Ireland and England resulted into all this. When England conquered Ireland, the Christians from the rich England mistreated the Catholics from Ireland. The few Catholics from the north came down to become impoverished and poor. They were unable to pay rent to the landlords thus were extradited into the streets. The scenario is pained by Swift in a rhetorical manner. The sympathy in the article magnifies the problems of the people of Ireland. In perspective, the people are treated like animals which can be slaughtered and become a meal for the rich. The wealthy of Christians from England can still not enjoy a meal from the people of Ireland. The rights of people have been trampled on the ground by the magnitude from the wealthy Christians. This conflict between Christians and Catholics went against the doctrines of biblical teachings. It shows the level of faith among the different churches.

Political and religious leaders take no impact in the living of the poor generation of the time. Lack of economic empowerment has led to the conditions that the population experience. The problems at that time included the running of the country of Ireland. Jonathan Swift presents the picture of the laws set up by the rule of the English over the people of Ireland as ruthless and with no idea of the Catholic faith. The population of the people of England had a higher rate of increase than that being experienced in Ireland. In the article ‘ A Modest Proposal” Swift portrayed the rule of law at the time as unbearable even to the people who counted themselves as non residents. In his mathematical statistics, the numbers given arrive to an answer that is easily bearable to a ruling government. The problem of food affected the society. Crop diseases came and swept the staple food for the Irish. Potato farms did not produce anything in that century. This became unbearable for the population. As the Christian people from England had taken all the jobs, the Catholic faithful remained unemployed. The able ones boarded ships to go to the Diaspora to look for greener pastures.

The statistics given by Jonathan Swift seems particularly true and reasonable as per his sympathetic writing. In the early 1800, there are no records showing the exact population number that existed in Ireland. This contradicts what has been recorded in the office of central statistics for the late years of 1900. Therefore, the numbers that have been put down are not something to go by. They are as ironical as the skinning of humans to make warm gloves. Although there were some births that were not recorded, the approximate data are far away beyond the expected. The number of people as per his writing should have been able to win the war with England.

What captures the mind of the reader in the whole of Swift’s writing are the solutions given. Since when did a human body make an excellent meal for the mighty and wealthy? Relating the sale of a child to earn country money and to feed the adults is unheard of. In his writing, Swift recommends the sale of babies to the rich Christians on the other side of England to earn foreign exchange. He also brings out the need for selling mainly female children so that they do not grow up to bear more children. He was giving a way out to the authorities for the exploding population. The picture is painted in a way that there is sadness in the reading voice. An alive child being sold to face the knife of a slaughter man is unimaginable. The issue of morality was addressed by the support of marriages. In the article, Swift proposes that a man should get many girls to increase the number of children born. With this, he tried to entice and propose that the population cannot increase with all married. The point is that the number of beggars on the streets came from children born out of wedlock. This is a confirming point as those born from a family with a father and a mother were well maintained by a hardworking man. The streets are painted to show that there were other wealthy people in Ireland. Therefore, the cry of the people was heard by someone but they refused to assist.

The writing of Jonathan Swift is a petition to the government and authority in England. It portrayed the desperate nature of the population. Other methods of relaying the message to the ruling class had failed to bear fruits. This led to the writings by Swift to take another like of reproach. The method of writing brings shiver and concern to today’s reader. When the people of England were reading this in the early days, they knew its sole purpose. Therefore, they had no fear and accepted the work as long as it would lead them out of the state they were in. The understanding of the reader would be poetic in nature. It also has some clues to show that it is fiction. In line with that, the reader is able to infer between the lines of the magnitude of problems that led the writer to write in such a style. In the final word, the presentation of the petition to the English authority was deserved. The work means a lot and has not lost application in the modern society. To crack a hole in a rock, one needs a harder tool than a rock.

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