The Following is a Reaction to the Essay 'A Modest Proposal' by Johnathan Swift

Upon reading this essay for a first time, I was confused. This was the first time I had ever encountered olde English language, at least outside of the Shakespearian context which I hear is extremely different anyways. Regardless, after some translation with the help of Sparknotes, I got the general gist of it and went through several stages of reaction.My first reaction was one of somewhat shock. I looked over this supposed proposal several times and each time I grew more and more suspicious of this man’s sanity. To propose something with this impact in this time period, it was more than bold, it was downright ludicrous. I quickly began to believe the genre of satire was created simply out of desperation to keep him from public persecution, because it’s easy to just say ‘oh c’mon, I was only kidding with you!’ He couldn’t possibly think that we’re going to buy into this idea. Wait… Oh yeah, that’s the point.The more I read up on satire itself, the more I began to laugh and have an amused reaction. Of course, it should have been obvious from the start that this was all a big joke. I mean, come on, who could possibly take this seriously? The man is proposing that eating babies is not only a morally correct thing to do, but is economically sound. It doesn’t matter how starving or overpopulated Ireland once was, at no point in history would they ever take this sort of thing seriously. Why, just entertaining the notion at this point, its… its… not that bad…This brought me to my third and final reaction, curiosity. What if this man was to be taken seriously and morality put aside for a moment. It sounds like a lucrative and untapped market that would undoubtedly stimulate the economy in ways that have never been seen before, and could also be a great way to bring an end to world hunger. After much debate and deliberation into myself, I’ve mustered up my courage and begun writing out a well planned and persuasive letters to Rep. Paul Hodes and senators Judd Gregg and Jeanne Shaheen, imploring them to look further into Mr. Swift’s joking, but highly intelligent proposal. I expect to also inspire other people in states across the nation to implore their Senators and Congressmen likewise, and hopefully together we can realize the dream of Jonathan Swift, wherein the lower class is abolished totally, in more ways than one.