Metacognitive Journal #5

A Modest Proposal

Responding as a modern reader...

             From reading "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick," I find that this it is a very depressing piece that shows how a helpless mother would do everything to help her infants. It is a very unpleasant and disturbing sight to see a mother in sadness, unable to work, but with hungry mouths to feed; sitting there silently and accepting the poverty upon her. In this text, it mentions that children live in squalor because their families are too poor properly provide food, shelter and clothing for them, which showed that people were poor and did not have enough money to live a normal life. At the beginning of the text, Swift disturbingly describes a one year old child as "the most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome Food; whether Stewed, Roasted, Baked or Boiled." This statement is not to be looked at literally, but is connotated as  the idea of fattening up the starving population and feed them to the  rich people of Ireland. It is also stated that poor tenants see their children as valuables and trade their children at the meat market at the age of one to either pay for their debts or to not have to bear the burden of feeding a child and getting a little amount of money in return. As a modern reader, I find this whole text extremely disturbing and morally wrong in so many ways. Children are supposed to be given love and care, even though when there is no money because it is the responsibility of a parent to look after their child until they grow up. This is something that every living knows and is capable of doing, but in the point of view of people back then, the economy is in ruins and they think that it is necessary to commit such disgusting acts as giving away their child and treating them as unwanted objects. In modern time, it is a very disgraceful act to do so and people will see you as a monster. Even in economic struggles, families live and fight through problems together. As long as they are together, that is all they need.