A Modest Proposal Setting & Symbolism

A Modest Proposal Objects/Places

The Streets

The author states female beggars with up to six children crowd the Dublin streets.

Food

The author proposes society kills children for meat. He says a friend of his has stated the meat from children, boiled, stewed or fried, is wholesome and nourishing. One child could feed a party of adults.

The Economy

The author states the sale of human meat will help the floundering economy. Rearing a beggar child for meat will cost only two shillings a year and the farmer could sell the child at for at least ten shillings. The child's mother would not only eight shilling for the child, but she would be fit for work.

Dublin

The author is talking from the perspective of a Dubliner. He computes that Dublin, with its many weddings and Christenings, would eat about 20,000 children a year. The rest of the country would eat 80,000 children.

Ireland

The author proposes the laws for...
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