Sometimes people use humor to make fun of the misery in their
life. Not that they value these problems but just to make them seem obvious and
noteworthy. There is a whole writing style for this kind of concept named after
an Irish writer who used his wit to highlight social problems. This style is
known as satirical writing. Satirical writing is all about hilariously
exaggerating a fact and mocking it, for it to be noticed by people. It is a
kind of humor reflecting sad reality, humor that makes you think over the topic
discussed, and humor that is sometimes also grotesque. This Irish writer was
Jonathan Swift who was known for his satirical essay A Modest Proposal.
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Being an empath and a sensitive person, Jonathan always noticed
the immorality going on in his surroundings. Although he was not the one who
faced these problems, he saw what was happening around him. These problems were
nurtured out of the rapidly growing plant of “Industrialism”. Now we are quite
aware of the romantic poets at that time who wanted to escape all the busy
routine, all the hardship of towns to the peaceful countryside, and finding
escape from reality in the serenity of nature. Whereas Jonathan saw an uglier
side of this revolution, that was the miserable lives of the poor.
Industrialism was the time where the middle-class was raised as
a community and start-up living a successful life. But it got worse for the
poor or the workers of that time. They were suffering from famine when there
was a lot of food, they were treated like slaves when slavery was fading as an
ancient concept. Jonathan, using his bitter humor, highlighted all these ideas
and also provided the poor with some calculated solutions for their problems.
Well, the poor might not be able to implement them, but they should be
deliberate enough for people to realize where the problem lies.
The Modest Proposal was written in the 2nd decade of the
18th century. As the name emphasizes, it is a very modest and strategic
proposal that will provide suggestions to the oppressed and hungry people of
Ireland at that time. It was a period of social and political unrest and in
situations like these, the poor suffer the most. He starts off the essay by
talking about the poor roaming around the city, either they are beggars or a
mother with three, four, or six children behind her. He says in a loathsome
tone that these poor have crowded the city. These mothers would have done
something more beneficial for their survival if they did not have these many
kids. Either these children become thieves when growing up or are sent to war,
so they are of no use to their mothers. But that is not a matter of concern for
the writer, he wants to talk about something more befitting and necessary to
address. As Ireland was extremely populated at that time with limited
resources, the people were suffering in many ways. Although children are
considered a future of a nation but here, the writer considers them a
burden.
Moving on, he represents a debate of mathematical calculations
where he estimated the number of people in the country, how many couples, how
many financially stable, and the number of beggars. So, to get rid of these
hunger problems, he suggested that the poor can earn a living by providing
their children as a meal to the landlords. As in his own words;
“that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a
most delicious nourishing and 60 wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted,
baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie
or a ragoust.”
Of course, this sounds repulsive and sickening but Swift defends
his point that there is no other way to make this country a better place so it
is for the best. Besides, if women will keep breeding and bring profit to their
home, perhaps their husbands would not beat them anymore, which would be a
relief. And he dares does not want to hear you talking about hope or making
your nation a better place or by any means having mercy on those poor. Because
he had already tried all these tactics and all in vain. So, you do not have to
take such headaches and try to make things right, instead just abide by his
proposal and it will be a win-win situation.
Yes, the proposal is not modest. A reader would feel uneasiness after
reading this essay, although he can tell that this writing is highly hyperbole
in a deeper meaning, it holds a message. A message that how a poor is living
their life and how rich have become so thirsty for money and power that they
are even sucking the basic rights from these poor. And it was not only
happening in that time of Industrialism, even today we see a similar situation.
Be it any era, the poor always suffer and the rich espousing every possible way
to make the suffering worse. Many writers started to use satirical style to
pinpoint the problem as it was easy to bring it to notice indirectly using
humor.
This article is written by Hafsah Afridi, one of the contributors at the School of Literature.
