England essentially made Ireland their slave nation and had little reason left to not treat Irish citizens any better than livestock. In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift suggests that the English should be the ones to consume the Irish children because they had already taken advantage of the Irish and run their country into the ground to the extent that the English had little left to take from Ireland other than the meat from their youth. Prior to the English Protestants taking over the Irish Parliament, England and Ireland had been “set up as sister kingdoms by King John”(Baker). Jonathan Swift looked down on the Irish because of how they allowed themselves to be dominated by England (Cummings). After losing control of their country, the Irish became accustomed to living in poverty and being subservient to the English. Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” suggested Irish parents should sell their children as meat in an attempt to shock them into the realization of how detrimental their situation had become. As the English took over the country, the Irish began to embrace their poverty and resign themselves to being slaves to the English (Lindquist). Swift wrote “A Modest Proposal” in 1729 out of frustration with the political and religious turmoil in Ireland. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin (“Jonathan Swift”). Swift moved back and forth between England and Ireland several times in his life before finally settling down in 1713 as the Dean of St. Jonathan Swift, an Irish clergyman, satirist, and author, lived from 1667 to 1745.
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