A Modest Proposal - Bayside High School, Bayside ENGLISH 4

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1. PART A: Which TWO of the following statements best describe the central ideas of the text? A. Poor families are just going to keep growing, so it’s best to leave them to starve themselves out.... B. In order to control population and poverty, the children of the poor should be sold as food. C. Any other proposal would be a waste of time to listen to. D. The social situation during this time is dire, with poverty rampant throughout the kingdom, particularly in Ireland. E. A person is not measured by how productive, costly, or useful they can be to larger society. F. The poor should get out of the streets and make more of an effort to find employment, rather than beg for their food. 2. PART B: Which TWO of the following paragraphs best support the answers to Part A? A. Paragraph 1 B. Paragraph 6 C. Paragraph 8 D. Paragraph 18 E. Paragraph 24 F. Paragraph 30 3. PART A: To what is the author referring when using words like "€œbreeders"€? (paragraph 5, paragraph 14, paragraph 18, and paragraph 21) and "€œcommodity"€? (paragraph 6 and paragraph 29) in the text? A. Poor child-bearing women and their children B. Various forms of livestock C. Middle-class women and their property 4. PART B: What effect does the author's word choice have on the tone of the text? A. It makes the proposal sound even more ridiculous and over-thetop. B. It is comparable to the way people talk about livestock and trade, adding to the silly tone of the text. C. It dehumanizes these people, reducing them to their worth or abilities (i.e. giving birth), conveying a tone of indifference. D. It divides people based on their religious practices, contributing to the incited and biased tone of the text. 5. How does the following quote develop the narrator’s point of view?: “I desire those politicians who dislike my overture… that they will first ask the parents of these mortals, whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food, at a year old in the manner I prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of misfortunes as they have since gone through by the oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor clothes to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of entailing the like or greater miseries upon their breed for ever.” (Paragraph 32) - It shows that Swift does not refer morals or judgements. He doesn’t care for the teaching ethics of everything, but he does try to make crazy suggestions about selling babies or children for cash. This also contains satire giving the reader something to figure out whether Swift’s idea of selling babies is wrong. Instead he lets people make their own decisions [Show More]

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