A review by cluckingbell
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
4.0
Pretty funny, and surprisingly compassionate, and oddly satisfying for me, a childless vegetarian. Also much, much shorter than I realized, so there's no reason to put off reading it.
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Just going to add something I wrote elsewhere on Goodreads, so my limited thoughts are all in the same place.
It did what it was supposed to as satire, i.e., used rather cutting humor to shine a light on society. In this case, it regards people in ruthless economic terms. What do children contribute to their families or society? They can't be good pickpockets until at least 6 years of age, can't be sold for other purposes until 12 or 14, so just sell the excess children as delicacies to the wealthy. It'd prevent abortions, reduce the number of Catholics, and, given the economic incentive of having plump, healthy babies, get men to treat their pregnant wives with as much care as they do their livestock. And you know that the author's intentions are pure, he says, because his wife is beyond her child-bearing years and his youngest child is too old to sell for human consumption—there is no profit for him in this proposal.
I enjoyed the 'wickedness' of the statement, and I felt it has certain resonances regarding ethical food choices and economic consumption/consumerism (and other things) in modern America, too.
..........................
Just going to add something I wrote elsewhere on Goodreads, so my limited thoughts are all in the same place.
It did what it was supposed to as satire, i.e., used rather cutting humor to shine a light on society. In this case, it regards people in ruthless economic terms. What do children contribute to their families or society? They can't be good pickpockets until at least 6 years of age, can't be sold for other purposes until 12 or 14, so just sell the excess children as delicacies to the wealthy. It'd prevent abortions, reduce the number of Catholics, and, given the economic incentive of having plump, healthy babies, get men to treat their pregnant wives with as much care as they do their livestock. And you know that the author's intentions are pure, he says, because his wife is beyond her child-bearing years and his youngest child is too old to sell for human consumption—there is no profit for him in this proposal.
I enjoyed the 'wickedness' of the statement, and I felt it has certain resonances regarding ethical food choices and economic consumption/consumerism (and other things) in modern America, too.