Jonathan Swift's satirical essay from 1729, where he suggests that the Irish eat their own children.

jonathan swift bu metinde irlandalı çocuklarının pişirilip yenilmesi veya derilerinden kibar baylara ve nazik bayanlara eldiven vaya çizme yapılmasını 18. yüzyılda önermişşş!! işin gerçeği metni okuduğumuzda ortaya çıkıyor. metnin sonunda metnin analizini yapacağım keyifli okumalar:)

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A MODEST PROPOSAL
FOR PREVENTING THE CHILDREN OF POOR PEOPLE IN IRELAND
FROM BEING A BURDEN TO THEIR PARENTS OR COUNTRY, AND
FOR MAKING THEM BENEFICIAL TO THE PUBLIC
It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the
country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the
female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every
passenger for an alms. These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest
livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their
helpless infants: who as they grow up either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their
dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.
I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on
the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present
deplorable state of the kingdom a very great additional grievance; and, therefore, whoever
could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children sound, useful
members of the commonwealth, would deserve so well of the public as to have his statue
set up for a preserver of the nation.
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Jonathan Swift. A Modest Proposal
But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for the children of
professed beggars; it is of a much greater extent, and shall take in the whole number of
infants at a certain age who are born of parents in effect as little able to support them as
those who demand our charity in the streets.
As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many years upon this important subject,
and maturely weighed the several schemes of other projectors, I have always found them
grossly mistaken in the computation. It is true, a child just dropped from its dam may be
supported by her milk for a solar year, with little other nourishment; at most not above the
value of 2s., which the mother may certainly get, or the value in scraps, by her lawful
occupation of begging; and it is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them
in such a manner as instead of being a charge upon their parents or the parish, or wanting
food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall on the contrary contribute to the
feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands.
There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those
voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children,
alas! too frequent among us! sacrificing the poor innocent babes I doubt more to avoid the
expense than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman
breast.
The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of
these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are
breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couples who are able to maintain
their own children, although I apprehend there cannot be so many, under the present
distresses of the kingdom; but this being granted, there will remain an hundred and
seventy thousand breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand for those women who miscarry,
or whose children die by accident or disease within the year. There only remains one
hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents annually born. The question
therefore is, how this number shall be reared and provided for, which, as I have already
said, under the present situation of affairs, is utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto
proposed. For we can neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we neither build
houses (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land: they can very seldom pick up a
livelihood by stealing, till they arrive at six years old, except where they are of towardly
parts, although I confess they learn the rudiments much earlier, during which time, they
can however be properly looked upon only as probationers, as I have been informed by a
principal gentleman in the county of Cavan, who protested to me that he never knew above
one or two instances under the age of six, even in a part of the kingdom so renowned for
the quickest proficiency in that art.
I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or a girl before twelve years old is no salable
commodity; and even when they come to this age they will not yield above three pounds,
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Jonathan Swift. A Modest Proposal
or three pounds and half-a-crown at most on the exchange; which cannot turn to account
either to the parents or kingdom, the charge of nutriment and rags having been at least four
times that value.
I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to
the least objection.
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a
young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and
wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it
will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.
I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the hundred and twenty
thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof
only one-fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle or
swine; and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a
circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore one male will be sufficient to
serve four females. That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in
the sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom; always advising the
mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat
for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when
the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned
with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.
I have reckoned upon a medium that a child just born will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solar
year, if tolerably nursed, increaseth to 28 pounds.
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.
Infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March, and a
little before and after; for we are told by a grave author, an eminent French physician, that
fish being a prolific diet, there are more children born in Roman Catholic countries about
nine months after Lent than at any other season; therefore, reckoning a year after Lent, the
markets will be more glutted than usual, because the number of popish infants is at least
three to one in this kingdom: and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage, by
lessening the number of papists among us.
I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar's child (in which list I reckon all
cottagers, laborers, and four-fifths of the farmers) to be about two shillings per annum,
rags included; and I believe no gentleman would repine to give ten shillings for the carcass
of a good fat child, which, as I have said, will make four dishes of excellent nutritive meat,
when he hath only some particular friend or his own family to dine with him. Thus the
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Jonathan Swift. A Modest Proposal
squire will learn to be a good landlord, and grow popular among his tenants; the mother
will have eight shillings net profit, and be fit for work till she produces another child.
Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flay the carcass; the
skin of which artificially dressed will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots
for fine gentlemen.





ANALİZ : metin bu şekilde ilerliyor arkadaşlar.farkettiysek yazar bebeklerin nasıl yenilmesine onlardan nasıl yemek olacağına kadar detaylı bir öneri sunmuş.ilginç.metnin adı a modest proposal yani mütevazi bir öneri.bu metinde asıl anlatılması istenen şey ingilizlerin irlandaya 1700 lü yıllarda olan sömürgeleştirme ve bununla beraber yaptıkları eziyeti eleştirmek.irlanda halkı o zamanlar ingilizlerden o kadar çok çekiyormuş ki irlanda kökenli bu yazar eleştirmek için oldukça ilginç bir yöntem bulmuş ve bu satirik yazi oldukça ilgi çekmiş.yazarın demek istediği ise zaten ingilizzler ülkemizi yiyor tüketiyor bu çocukları biz yemezsek zaten ölüp ziyan olacaklar.ingilizler bu çocukları yesin bari de bir işe yarasınlar bu çocuklar mantığı ile yazılmış tamamen ingilizlerin ülkeyi nasıl kullandıkları ve irlandanın nasıl tüketildiğini anlatamya yönelik bir ilişki.metnin ismi bile mütevazı öneri yani ingilizlerin yaptığının yanında benim önerim mütevazı kalıyor demek istemiş yazar. o döneme bakmanın farklı bir yanı! yazar eleşritinin en iyi yolununn komikleştirme yani kinaye olduğunu farkında ve en iyi etkinin bu olduğunu bize kanıtlıyor..