reluctant to complain. However, when problems are not confronted, they cannot be solved. In their respective essays, Jonathan Swift and William F. Buckley, Jr. discuss the idea that a society that is apathetic toward its problems cannot advance. In the satire "A Modest Proposal," Swift mockingly suggests a "modest" solution to improve the economy and address starvation in Ireland in 1729 because at the time, the government had not done anything to solve the dilemma. He proposed that the Irish citizens
when the family dines alone, the fore and hind quarter will make a reasonable dish.” - Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal. In 1729, Jonathan Swift of both England and Ireland published his esteemed pamphlet A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being Aburden to their Parents or Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick (Swift.) The satirical essay was intended to challenge those who acted heartlessly toward the poor and needy, specifically wealthy
mocking. Satire has been around as long as there has been sarcasm, so when Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal was published in 1729 satire was not a new concept. Though satire was not unheard of and Swift was already well known for his caustic writing, neither of these things prevented people from across Ireland and the rest of Europe from being shocked and horrified upon reading this unique essay. The essay begins with the author lamenting the fate of all of the poverty-stricken citizens of Ireland