Mid way through this piece I realized that Jonathan Swift is either a brilliant satirist who is crafting a poignant, well constructed message for the masses about social issues facing his dear country of Ireland, or a narcissistic, psychopathic, cannibal who is most definitely coming soon to a child near you (hide your kids, hide your wife). I was relieved to discover (and so we’re approximately 120,000 small Irish children) that Swift is simply a disenfranchised Irishman trying to prove a point, not a nut job with an appetite for infants. And even though the proposal was just a rouse, what was amazing to me was the amount of time and painstaking detail that he put into his mock proposal. I kept waiting for the paragraph where the true meaning came pouring out but it kept building and building until you actually start thinking that there might not be an ulterior motive. If his goal was to make the reader so repulsed and angered so that all of his actual solutions to Ireland’s problems seemed beyond logical, his plan worked perfectly.
I really couldn’t tell if he was serious or not the first time I read it, but then I revisited some parts of the proposal and saw some hints. My favorite subtle clue was “I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.” I saw this sentence as a very politically charged one, a heart wrenching statement about the state of workers on wealthy Irish land owners properties and how they are treated. I also loved how he chose the word devoured in describing how the landlords treated the parents. Much like the entire reading that line was very subtle but very meaningful once I re-read it understanding his real concerns and real message.
