Objective: To create your own Modest Proposal, a la Swift.
- Choose a social institution or problem that you could write a satirical essay about. Some suggestions include politics, school, fashion, or relationships; however, you should narrow your topic to something very specific, like overpopulation. Be careful about the topic you select and your manners. For example, if you are seriously encouraging hatred for or violence against another race, religion, nationality, or belief system, your essay will be inappropriate. State the problem in the first paragraph.
- Come up with an outrageous solution to your problem. Much like Swift’s suggestion that we eat babies to solve the problem of starving children, you must come up with a suggestion that is over the top and totally impractical, but treat it as the most rational solution ever.
- Remember how Swift outlines or enumerates the advantages to his solution of eating babies? Include an enumerated list of at least three advantages to your solution and explain them.
- Remember how Swift brought up good solutions but insisted that they would not work? Include two to three realistic solutions to your problem that could work in the real world. You want to call attention to a problem you want to be solved, so without realistic solutions, your essay is pointless. However, in the essay, you will be treating these good solutions as weak or ridiculous
- Include at least five satirical devices.
- At the bottom of your draft, explain the overall meaning and purpose of your satire, including an explanation of your satirical devices and their rhetorical effect/ purpose in the essay. What are you trying to accomplish?
Sample Solution