50 pages • 1 hour read
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Write Your Own “Modest” Proposal
A satire is a form of writing in which the author uses humor to make a statement regarding a specific issue. Satirical artistic expressions are present not only as written texts, but also as visuals such as caricatures. Swift’s use of satire in this essay focuses on providing an exaggerated solution to a widespread problem; even the title itself as only a “modest” idea to the problem evokes some humor once the reader understands the nature of Swift’s suggestion.
Write your own “modest proposal” to the problem of income inequality in 18th-century Ireland.
By Jonathan Swift