Swift a Powerful Satirist

Yes, it is rather revolting thinking about really putting Swifts's proposal into practice, but I know I was not alone in reading it and thinking about how genius it is. The reason it works so well as a satire is because of his amazing argumentative skills and ability to take something as insane as killing babies for bacon and turning it into even a little bit of an, athough sick and twisted, almost logical idea. With such a disastrous living situation in Ireland, Swift is able to take all the elements of what would be considered a normal argument for repairing the conditions, and incorporate them into his own, just with the added craziness of the whole idea. Swift is simply taking what he seees as the way Ireland's poor are already treated and turning it into a literal way of life.

Perhaps the best sting in his proposal comes toward the end when he is wrapping up his argument and actually speaks in a more realistic manner. He asks those who oppose his idea to consider asking the poor if they would prefer what he is proposing to "a perpetual scene of misfortunes as they have since gone through." In other words, would this insane idea really be worse than how the poor of Ireland are already living? This is a bold and powerful statement made by Swift and therefore makes for a most excellent satire.