Download “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift

“A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift
Name: ___________________ Date: _______________
1. Find two examples each of the following:
A. Verbal irony
1. ____________________________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________________________
B. Sarcasm
1. ____________________________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________________________
C. Hyperbole
1. ____________________________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________________________
D. Diction
1. ____________________________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________________________
2. Find two examples each of the following appeals:
A. Emotional (pathos)
1. ____________________________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________________________
B. Logical (logos)
1. ____________________________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________________________
C. Ethical (ethos)
1. ____________________________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________________________
As you read “A Modest Proposal,” answer the following questions.
3. What is the narrator’s proposal? What are the advantages of the proposal? Do you think that it is modest?
4. How do you understand the subtitle?
5. What tone is used here? Illustrate your points with some examples from the text.
6. At what point in the text did it be come apparent to you that this was a satirical piece? Explain.
7. What are the situations in Ireland?
8. What is Swift's attitude toward the beggars he describes in the opening paragraph?
9. How does he anticipate the objection of the proposal?
10. In Paragraph 33, what is the narrator’s attitude in saying that “I have no children by which I can propose
to get a single penny, the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past childbearing?”
11. With what social groups does he identify himself?