Jonathan Swift Summary

In this article, the writer is proposing an idea to cut down on over population in London. Jonathan Swift suggests we start eating those of the lesser class. Specifically, the beggars and thieves, he also suggests breeders that would be willing to sell their children (older than 12 but not older than 15 i think) for a small profit since "poor children" are more inclined to me malnourished and according to the author, have no real use since they will grow up to be like their parents (beggars and thieves). He goes on to talk about how this would improve domestic violence rates by the father wanting to avoid miscarriage and would restrain from beating or hurting the mother also, how we should not take into account those who are maimed. To back up his claims the writer uses ethos and pathos as rhetorical devices, ethos is shown by his many sources and references them whenever they come into play. Pathos is used well through out because we do not want to accept this as a solution to over population but as the reader gets close to the end of this passage, the writer almost convinces the reader to merely consider cannibalism as a way to correct the problem of over population. Although, I do not agree with the writers views, it is a very convincing argument with various "sources" to back up the idea.