50 pages • 1 hour read
Jonathan SwiftA Modest Proposal
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1729A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Introduction
“A Modest Proposal”
- Genre: Satirical prose
- Originally Published: 1729
- Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 1520L; grades 10-12; college/adult
- Central Concern: An unnamed narrator establishes the argument that something must be done about the number of destitute infants in 18th-century Ireland, then advocates satirically for those infants to be used as a food source for the wealthy.
- Potential Sensitivity Issues: Economic disparity; disturbing imagery
Jonathan Swift, Author
- Bio: 1667-1745; born in Dublin, lived in England as an adult, then returned to Ireland permanently in 1714; Anglo-Irish essayist, poet, and satirist; political journalist; wrote several great works later in life while serving as Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin; well-known for his satirical prose
- Other Works: A Tale of a Tub (1704); “An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity” (1712); Gulliver’s Travels (1726)
CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:
- Reform Efforts’ Failure to Address Income Inequality
- The Dehumanizing Attitudes Held by the Rich Toward the Poor
- Political and Religious Tensions in Early 18th-Century Ireland
STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:
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