Saturday, December 7, 2013

What point does Swift make with his metaphorical use of the word "devour" in the sentence.."As they have already devoured most of the parents...


I grant this food
will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already
devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the
children.



In his "modest proposal" of
having the British eat the starving Irish babies so that their mothers will better be able to
feed the other children, Johanthan Swift suggests the pratical manner in which this proposal can
be worked out. He urges that there be open season year round for the babies of the poor, and with
an accountant's precision, he calculates the cost. And, since the cost will be high, or "dear,"
the baby will make a "proper" dish for the British landlords to serve their company. Also, Swift
writes, since the landlords have "devoured" the parents already by providing them no rights,
overcharging them on rents, and impoverishing them to the point that they starve, it is only
fitting that they literarlly devour the children of these parents.

No comments:

Post a Comment

How is Anne's goal of wanting "to go on living even after my death" fulfilled in Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl?I didn't get how it was...

I think you are right! I don't believe that many of the Jews who were herded into the concentration camps actually understood the eno...