Irony is a beautiful technique exercised to convey a message or call a certain group of people to action. This rhetorical skill is skillfully used by Jonathan Swift in his pamphlet “A Modest Proposal.” The main point of this bitingly ironic essay is to capture the attention of a disconnected and indifferent audience. Swift makes her point by stringing together a terribly convoluted series of morally untenable positions in order to cast blame and smear on her intended audience. Jonathan Swift's “A Modest Proposal” employs despicable and vivid satire to call for change in a world of abuse and misfortune. The entire proposal constitutes a satire in itself; an analogy paralleling the tyrannical attitude of the English towards their Irish counterparts. In short, Swift suggests that Irish parents are the property of the English and that children are the property of their parents, therefore England has the right to consume Irish children. Swift uses this syllogism throughout to show the English that their despotic reign in Ireland left the miserable nation in poverty and disorder, without any kind of sustainable economy. Swift writes: “Some people of a despondent nature are very worried.” This is not simply a concern for the number of poor and malnourished people in the country, as Swift writes in the text; rather it is an ironic illustration of the Irish nation in chaos. The English reigned over the Irish so long and so cruelly that they left Ireland in a state of psychological, political and economic dependence. In other words, “Protestant consumerist ideology” has “effectively eroded” Irish people's self-confidence and sense of worth so severely that it has left Ireland unable to sustain itself (Mahoney). The phrase "young healer... middle of paper..." is used to tell Ireland that they must find a way to reduce England's wealth and discover a solution to the problems they face, alone, in order to cultivate long-term prosperity. Swift exemplifies how to use irony to challenge the problems facing Britain and Ireland in the early 18th century. An ingenious interweaving of frightening images and indefensible arguments effectively disseminates a clear message to its readers that changes need to be made in the prejudicial and dysfunctional society in which they live. British rule is addressed and Irish ineptitude is put in the spotlight in this satirical work. The rich can no longer act arrogantly, unawarely and intimidatingly; nor can the Irish people remain withdrawn in the shadow of oppression. The devastating irony of Jonathan Swift's 'A Modest Proposal' attacks injustice and reveals the path to the U.K..