Bert McCoy's
"MyTeaching Resources"
English 9-12
  • Home
    • Bert McCoy Quotes Page 1
    • Bert McCoy quotes Page 2
    • Bert McCoy Meditation Quotes >
      • Bert McCoy Non-duality Quotes
      • Bert McCoy Self Realization Quotes
      • Bert McCoy Meditation Quotes
      • Present moment quotes
    • Home #2
    • Home #3
    • Top 10 Rules for Success >
      • Five Methods to Notetaking
      • Differentiated Instruction Depth and Complexity
      • Note To Self/ Letter to Self
      • Classroom Rules and Expectations
      • Vocabulary (SAT 100)
      • SAT/ Vocabulary #2
      • Vocabulary SAT/CAHSEE/CST
      • Sat Vocabulary Words
      • Vocabulary Roots
      • Thesis Statements
      • MLA Formatting
      • Writing a Business Letter
      • Figurative Language
      • Transition Word List
      • Transition Word List
      • Transition Word List
      • Literature Terms
      • Literature Terms
      • Glossary of Literature Terms
      • Forshadowing
      • Context Clues
      • Mysteries of vernacular
      • Vocabulary Prefix
      • Science Fiction & Fantasy Stories (Tor.com)
      • Russian writers
      • Some Favorite Songs
      • Some Favorite UFO Video Clips
      • Storyboards
      • The Journey of Purpose
      • youarecreators
      • Absolute Motivation #1
      • Absolute Motivation #2
      • Business World Material
      • Peaceful Warrior Quotes
      • Goal-setting
      • Less Brown
      • Who Moved My Cheese/ #1
      • Who Moved My Cheese/ #2
      • Who Moved My Cheese/ #3
      • Secrets of Success
      • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
      • The Four Agreements:
      • The Four Agreements
      • John Wooden's, "Pyramid of Success"
  • Teaching Stories
    • Teaching Stories/ Quotes >
      • Spiritual Paths
    • Mooji Stories
    • "The Emperor's Three Questions" by Leo Tolstoy
    • Avadhuta Gita >
      • Avadhuta Gita
    • Teaching Stories
    • Mullah Nasruddin Stories
    • The Bhagavad Gita vs "To be or not to be." >
      • The Bhagavad-Gita
    • Vedanta Teachings >
      • Advaita / Nonduality Quotes
      • Advaita
    • The Emerald Tablets/Alchemist
    • Aesop's Fables
    • Koans
    • The Oarsman
    • The American Tourist Story
    • The Violinist
    • The Moth Presents
    • inspirational Stories
  • Cool Quotes
    • Rumi Quotes >
      • Non-Dual Quotes
      • Present Moment Quotes
    • Inspirational Quotations 1
    • Inspirational Quotations 2
    • Cool QUOTES!
    • Motivational Quotes
    • Wisdom
  • Film Studies 2019-2020
    • Film Study Syllabus >
      • Film Study Terms
      • Film Vocabulary 2
    • Parasite Film
    • Arrival Film
    • Film Posters >
      • Denis Villeneuve
    • Film Studies Films >
      • Movies for Film Class
    • Film History/The Lumiere Brothers and more...
    • Film Making Quotes >
      • Lucy Film
      • First Films of Great Directors >
        • Editing (Cuts)
        • Federico Fellini
        • Jean-Luc Godard
        • Screenplay Theme
      • Hollywood Casting and Film
      • Sam Mendes 1917 Film
      • Rotten Tomatoes Best films
      • Screenwriting Sample Scrips
    • Movie Etiquette >
      • Character Types
      • Turner Classic Movies
      • Free Movies
      • Pulp Fiction Film
    • Film Agenda 2019-2020 >
      • Permission Letter
      • Filmmaking and Advice
      • Breaking Into Hollywood
      • Film Schools
      • Filmsite
    • Film Quotes >
      • The 100 greatest movie quotes of all time
    • Cinematography >
      • Film Shots
      • Camera Shots
    • Famous Film Directors >
      • Directors Favorite Films
      • John Ford
      • Jean-Luc Godard >
        • Breathless >
          • Breathless
      • François Truffaut
      • Female Film Directors
      • Akira Kurosawae
      • Andrei Tarkovsky
      • David Fincher
      • Christopher Nolan
      • Fassbinder Films
      • Coen Brothers
      • Martin Scorsese
      • Steven Speilberg
      • Quentin Tarantino
      • Directors/Producers
      • Andrei Tarkovsky
      • Stanly Kubrick >
        • Stanley Kubrick
      • The Wachowskis
    • The Seven Stages of Film Production
    • Austin Film Festival
    • Sundance Film Winners >
      • Sundance Film Festival
    • Inside The Actor's Studio
    • Television Studies
    • Screenwriting Tips
    • Narrative Design and Terms >
      • Film Study Narrative Design
      • The Hero's Journey >
        • What is an Archetype?
        • Hero's Journey
        • The Hero's Journey #1
        • Hero's Journey #2
        • Hero's Journey #3
      • Mise En Scene >
        • Mise En Scene
      • Peaky Blinders
      • Peaceful Warrior
      • Peaceful Warrior Quotes
      • Peaceful Warrior Script
      • Peaceful Warrior
      • Groundhog Day >
        • Time Loop Films
        • If today was your last day?
        • Discussion Questions Film Studies
        • Character Counts Film Studies
      • The Legend of Bagger Vance/The Gita >
        • Production Notes Legend of Bagger Vance
      • Meet Joe Black >
        • Death Takes A Holiday 1934
      • Alfred Hitchcock >
        • Alfred Hitchcock
        • Alfred Hitchcock Presnts
        • Dial M for Murder
        • Psycho >
          • Psycho 1960
          • Ed Gain Psycho
        • The Birds
        • Rear Window 1954 >
          • Disturbia
        • Vertigo >
          • Vertigo 1958
        • Rope
        • To Catch a Thief
        • Notorious 1946
        • Strangers on a Train 1951
        • North by Northwest 1959
        • To Catch a Thief/ Hitchcock
        • The 39 Steps 1935
        • The Lady Vanishes 1938
      • Marathon Man
      • Poltergeist >
        • Poltergeist
      • Jaws >
        • Jaws
      • 2001: A Space Odyssey >
        • Stanley Kubric
      • 100-Foot Journey >
        • French Laundry Restaurant
        • The Hundred Foot Journey
        • 100 Foot Journey
      • Ratatouille Quotes
      • Close Encounters of the Third Kind
      • Documentary >
        • Basquiat
        • filmumentaries
        • 200 Free Documentaries
      • 42 The Jackie Robinson Story
      • It's A Wonderful Life >
        • it's a Wonderful Life
        • It's a Wonderful Life #2
        • It's A Wonderful Life Screenplay PDF
      • I Am Legend
      • The Matrix >
        • The Matrix Reloaded
        • The Matrix The Animatrix
      • Inception
      • Avatar
      • War of the Worlds >
        • H.G. Wells
        • War of The Worlds Vocabulary
        • War of the Worlds 2
      • Forever Strong Rugby >
        • Forever Strong
        • History of Rugby
      • Hoosiers >
        • Hoosiers
      • Goal The Dream Begins
      • Aliens and Cowboys >
        • The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
      • Film Noir >
        • 12 Angry Men 1957
        • Casablanca >
          • Casablanca
          • Casablanca Review
        • Film Noir >
          • Film Noir Titles
        • Strangers on a Train/ Hitchcock >
          • Strangers on a Train/ Hitchcock
        • The Maltese Falcon
      • Charlie Chaplin >
        • Charlie Chaplin
        • New Page
      • JFK Assassination 1 >
        • Robert Yeoman
        • JFK/Oliver Stone
        • JFK Assassination 2
        • Robert Richardson and JfK
      • Miracle >
        • Flow
      • Patch Adams >
        • Patch Adams 2
      • Gattaca >
        • Eugenics
        • Gattaca
        • Gattaca filming Locations
      • Point Break
      • The Dark Knight >
        • Batman 1
        • Batman 2
      • Inception
      • Finding Forrester
      • The Ring
      • Blade Runner 2049 >
        • Blade Runner
      • Rocky >
        • Top 25 Cult Films:
        • Screenwriting software
      • Films To Consider: >
        • Breathless, by Jean-Luc Godard (1960)
        • Interstellar
        • What Dreams May Come
        • Powder
        • Forrest Gump
        • Mr. Holland's Opus >
          • Vimeo Short Films
          • Sketchbooks for Class
        • The Shining
        • Breakfast at Tiffiffany's
        • Indiana Jones
        • Rain Man
        • French Kiss
        • Silence of the Lambs
        • The Hunger Games/Quotes >
          • Suzanne Collins
          • The Hunger Games
          • The Hunger Games
          • The Hunger Games Seneca
          • The Hunger Games/ Questions
          • Catching Fire
          • The Hunger Games
          • The Hunger Games/ Chapters
          • The Hunger Games/ Characters, Facts, Themes,
        • The Last Samurai
        • In the Mood for Love
        • Seabiscuit
        • Malcolm X
        • 3 Days of the Condor 1975
        • Das Boot
        • Crimson Tide
        • U-571
        • The Hunt For Red October
        • Mr. & Mrs. Smith
        • Promised Land
        • Wonder Woman 2017
        • Planet of the Apes Films
        • The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
        • A Fist Full of Dollars
        • The Conformist >
          • The Conformist
        • Peter Sellers
        • Gladiator
        • The Last Emperor 1987/ Bertolucci
        • Phenomenon 1996
        • Back to the Future
        • The Butler
        • Contagion 2011
        • Speed Racer
        • The Rainmaker
        • Remember the Titans
        • In the Mood for Love
        • 1984 George Orwell
        • Lord of the Rings Films
      • Citizen Kane >
        • Citizen Kane #2
      • The Perks of Being a Wallflower
      • They're Here!
      • The Wild Wild West! >
        • John Wayne / True Grit
        • Clint Eastwood/ High Plains Drifter
      • The Pride of the Yankees 1943
    • German Expressionism in Film >
      • Fritz Lang
      • Dadaist Films
    • Film as Social and Cultural History
    • Filmmaker IQ
    • National Archive Films
    • Atlas Shrugged /Ayn Rand
    • 2016-17 Film Play List
    • Scary Movies >
      • Horror
      • Flowers in the Attic/ Parental Responsibilities
      • Ghost of the Lagoon by Armstrong Sperry
      • Frankenstein 1910 Silent Movie
      • Free Movies
      • My Favorite Directors...Best Directors >
        • My Favorite Actors
    • Dreamworks
    • How to find the theme (s)
    • Man vs Nature Films
    • Film Studies
    • Film Set Lingo
    • Film Studies Lectures
    • Sound Design
    • Film Sound
    • Film Editing
    • Film Lighting Terms and Techniques >
      • Film Lighting
    • Acting Techniques
    • James Bond
    • Film Studies/ Film as Literature (FAL) >
      • filmsite.org
      • Classics Movies #1 >
        • Classic Movies #2
      • Buster Keaton
      • Buster keaton vs Charlie Chaplin
      • Sidney Portier Movies
    • Film Techniques and Terminology
    • Zorba the Greek
    • The Hollywood Reporter
    • Education Movies
    • WAR!
    • Braveheart
    • Glory Road
    • Historical and Period Drama Movies
    • Marlon Brando/On The Water-front
    • Mutiny on the Bounty
    • Stages and Archetypes of the Hero's Journey
    • October Sky
    • Spy Movies
    • Stephen Fry
    • Paper Towns
    • From Weak to Strong Movies
    • The Secret Life of Bees
    • Environmental Movies
    • Sports Movies >
      • A River That Runs Through It >
        • Fly Fishing Quotes
      • Money Ball >
        • Money Ball #2
      • Dogville
      • Goal / History of soccer >
        • Goal (page two)
      • Teamwork Movies
      • www.ronaldothefilm.com
      • We Are Marshall
      • Pele
      • Chariots of Fire
      • Remember the Titans
    • Lance Armstrong Doping
    • FAL/ ?
    • Madame Bovary
  • English 9 Curriculum Map 2018-19
    • Siddhartha >
      • Siddhartha Vocabulary Words
    • English 9 Unit 1 >
      • Video Games >
        • Video Gaming
        • Video Games #2
        • Game Programmer
        • Video Game Jobs
        • Video Games/Presi/Slideshare
      • Video Games
      • Story Telling /Moth
      • 10 Rules/Carmichael
    • The Cast of Amontillado
    • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian >
      • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Vocabulary Words
    • Direct and Indirect Characterization
    • Overly Sarcastic Productions The Classics
    • English 9 Unit 2 >
      • Food >
        • BBC Fast Food Baby
        • BBC The Truth About Food
        • BBC Beef Burgers
        • GMOs
        • Food
        • Food
        • Food
      • Richard Wright/Blackboy >
        • Black Boy by Richard Wright
      • The Age of the Essay Paul Graham
    • English 9 Unit 3 >
      • Siddhartha >
        • Siddhartha
        • The Odyssey Vocabulary Words >
          • The Odyssey Movie
          • Create a Myth Assignment
          • Odyssey Timelines/ AWESOME!
          • Odyssey Audio
          • The Odyssey/60 Second Recap
          • Freewill vs Determinism quotes
          • Freewill vs Determinism
          • Greek Gods
          • Greek Vases
          • Ancient Greeks
          • Greek Gods
          • The Greeks/Gods
          • Greek Gods/Godesses
          • Greek Gods and their Characteristics
          • Greek Gods/Videos
          • Odyssey
          • The Odyssey and the Hero's Journey
          • The Odyssey Presentations
      • Greek and Roman >
        • Untitled
        • What is theater?
        • Ancient Rome
        • The Gladiator Graveyard
        • Spartacus Behing the Myth
        • Helen of Troy
        • Worst Jobs Roman/Anglo-Saxon
        • Ancient Greek/Roman Music
        • Ancient Greek Homes
        • Rome/History/BBC >
          • Marcus Aurelius
          • The Stoics
          • Metal Detecting Roman/Greek
        • Oedipus The King >
          • Oedipus the King/Prezi
        • Homer, The Iliad
        • The Norse Gods
    • English 9 Unit 4 >
      • Graffiti >
        • Bansky
        • Bansky Art Sold fo
        • Street Art
        • The Top Street and Graffiti Artists to Watch in 2015
        • Graffiti Analysis
        • Anamorphic Graffiti Illusions by Odeith – Fubiz
    • Romeo and Juliet
    • English 9 Unit 5/ Poetry >
      • Various Poets
    • English 9 Other >
      • English 9 Essay
  • English 12 2017-18
    • Restorative Justice >
      • Juvenile Justice Essay Resources
      • Adam Foss
      • Racial Profiling >
        • Racial Poetry
        • Racial Profiling
      • Racism
      • Bullying #1
      • Race/Racism/Bullying
      • Jim Crow Museum
      • What Would You Do?
      • Bullying
      • Bullying
    • Eng 12/ Life after high school >
      • Personal Statement
      • Vision Board Assignment >
        • Vision Board Project
      • UC Writing Prompts/Journals
      • Hidden Intellectualism by Gerald Graff
      • Job Applications/Business Letter
      • Interview Questions and Answers >
        • Interview Q & A
        • Interview Q & A
      • Job Seeking/Resume/Q and A
      • FAFSA
      • Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
    • Unit 2 Week (3-5) "College Application Essay" >
      • Commencement Speeches #1
      • Commencement Speeches #2
      • Great Speeches
    • Zoot Suit >
      • Zoot Suit 2
    • 1984 Language, Gendetr, and Culture in George Orwell's 1984 >
      • 1984 Key facts, characters, themes, motifs, and symbolism
    • Brave New World 2016 >
      • Brave New World 2017 1
      • Gender, Language, and Identity
      • Brave New World Character Name meanings
      • BNW Vocabulary
      • BNW Chomsky
      • Brave New World Vocabulary Words
      • Brave New World 2016 2
      • The Perennial Philosophy/Huxly
      • Mystic Quotes
      • Papaji Advaita Vedanta
      • Nissargadatta
      • Vedanta Advaita Quotes
      • Kristnamurti Quotes
      • Sola BNW
      • Iron Maiden/ BNW
    • Into The Wild 2016-17
    • Into the Wild/ 11/15 >
      • Into the Wild/ Characters >
        • Into The Wild/Characters >
          • Into the Wild/Themes, Characters
      • Into the Wild/ Vocab
      • Into the Wild/ Quotes
      • into The Wild/ Chapter Reviews
      • Into The Wild/ Symbolism
      • Into To Wild/ Themes
      • Into The Wild/ Glossary
      • Into the Wild/ Quiz 1
      • Into the Wild/Jon Krakauer >
        • Is Ignorance Bliss?
        • Into the Wild/ Essential questions
        • Into the Wild/20/20 >
          • Into the Wild/Eckhart Tolle
        • Chris McCandless Articles/Outside Magazine
        • Into the Wild/Jon Krakaur
        • Into the Wild/2015/Nomads
        • Into the Wild
        • Into the Wild/The Big Two-hearted River/Nick Adams
        • Into the Wild/Who Am I
        • Into the Wild/Pierre Bezuhov/From War and Peace
        • Into The Wild/Various
        • Into the Wild/2015/Rush
        • Into the Wild/Tolstoy
        • Into the Wild/Springsteen
        • Into the Wild/Jack London
        • Into the Wild/Emerson
        • To Build a Fire/Jack Londen
        • Into the Wild/Louis L' Amour
        • Into the Wild/Thoreau
        • Into the Wild/Boris Pasternak
        • Into the Outdoors
        • Into the Wild/Alaska Denali
        • Into the Wild/Snowboarding
        • Into the Wild/2014/15/Supertramp
        • Into the Wild/Vocabulary
        • Into The Wild/Themes >
          • Into the Wild/Themes
        • Into The Wild/Glossary
        • Into the Wild/ Papaji
        • Into the Wild/Eckhart Tolle
        • Into the Wild
        • Into the Wild (Prezi)
        • Into the Wild/John Muir
        • Into the Wild/Quiz
        • Into the Wild /Movie Questions
        • Into the Wild/ Q&A
        • Into the Wild/ Climbing Videos
        • Into the Wild/Moose
    • Standards
    • English 12 Syllabus
    • English 12 2016-17 >
      • English 12a Final Essay
      • Letter To Myself >
        • Letter to Myself
        • Letter to Myself
    • English 12 Essay 2015
    • History of the English Church >
      • History of English
      • History of English
      • The History of English >
        • BBC Anglo-Saxons >
          • Anglo Saxons >
            • Anglo Saxon Lyre
            • Anglo-Saxon The History of English
            • Worst Jobs in History (Middle Ages)
            • The Worst Jobs in History--The Dark Age - Part 1-6
            • The Worst Jobs In History - 1x03 - Tudor
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Roman & Anglo-Saxon
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Medieval
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Tudor
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Stuart
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Georgian
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Victorian
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Urban
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Royal
            • The Worst Jobs In History-- Industrial
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Maritime
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Rural
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Christmas
            • The Medievil Mind >
              • The Medieval Belief
              • The Medievil Treasures BBC
              • The Medieval Power
              • Age of Conquest
              • The Crusades
              • The Black Plague
              • AEngla Land
              • Treasures of the Anglo-Saxons
              • The Staffordshire Hoard
            • Beowulf >
              • In Search of Beowulf
              • Beowulf PPt Presentations
              • British Literature Learning Videos >
                • Paganism vs Christianity
                • The Germanic Tribes
                • Beowulf & the Anglo-Saxons (1-8)
            • The Canterbury Tales
        • Language
    • English 12 Reading >
      • Epic of Gilgamesh Audio 2000 BC.
      • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Late 14th-century
      • The Wife of Bath's Tale 1405-1410 from canterbury Tales
      • The Passionate Shepard
      • Shakespeare 1564-1616 >
        • Shakespeare/ Tudor England
        • Novels/Plays >
          • Hamlet's, "To Be or Not to Be"
          • A Midsummer Night's Dream
          • Macbeth
          • Macbeth
          • Macbeth Act by Act
          • Shakespeare Poems
          • Globe Theater
          • Shakespeare Sonnets
          • Sonnet 1
          • Sonnet 1 Blog:
          • Sonnet 18
          • Sonnet 29
          • Sonnet 29 Blog:
          • Sonnet 75
          • Sonnet 75 Blog
          • Sonnet 130
      • Romeo & Juliet/ Shakespeare 4/15 >
        • Romeo & Juliet/ Shmoop Resources
        • Shakespeare Glossary
        • Shakespeare's Globe
        • Quotes about Shakespeare >
          • Shakespeare Quotes
          • Shakespeare Castles
        • Romeo & Juliet/ Characters
        • Romeo & Juliet/ Themes, Motifs, Symbolism
        • Elizabethan Clothing
        • Royal Shakespeare Company
        • Romeo and Juliet 1
        • Romeo and Juliet 2
        • Romeo and Juliet 3
        • Romeo and Juliet/ 60 Second
    • Six Centuries of Verse: Metaphysical & Devotional Poets >
      • Ben Johnson
      • John Donne
      • Andrew Marvell >
        • Jonathan Swift
        • A Modest Proposal
      • To His Coy Mistress
    • Romanticism 1790-1850 >
      • Romantic Spirit
      • Mysticism
      • William Blake
      • William Wordsworth
      • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
      • John Keats
      • Percy Bysshe Shelley
      • Mary Shelley
      • Lord Byron
      • James Joyce
  • My Favorite People
    • Favorite Artists >
      • Brian Dettmer Book Cutting
      • Bansky
      • Julian Schnabel
      • Phillip Guston
      • David Salle
      • Robert Motherwell
      • Picaso
      • Raushenburg
      • Francisco Clemente
      • Joseph Beuys
      • Cy Twombly
      • Jean Michel Basquiat
      • Keith Haring
      • Kenny Scharf
      • Kaws
      • Sun Xun
      • L' Arte
      • Richard Serra
    • AESOP
    • Adyashanti
    • Maya Angelou
    • Jane Austin
    • James Baldwin
    • Bansky Quotes
    • Coleman Barks
    • Joseph Beuys
    • Harold Bloom >
      • Harol Bloom/ How to read and why
    • Jorge Luis Borges
    • Robert Bly 1 >
      • Robert Bly 2
    • David Bowie
    • Ray Bradberry >
      • There Will Come Soft Rains
      • Usher II
      • The Veldt
      • Marionettes Inc.
      • Fehrenheit 451
      • Fahrenheit 451 Vocabulary
      • Fahrenheit 451 Quotes
    • Russell Brand >
      • Russell Brand
    • David Brooks
    • Barbara Brodsky
    • James Brown
    • Buddha >
      • Buddha
    • Warren Buffet
    • James Cameron
    • Albert Camus
    • Jack Canfield
    • George Carlin
    • Lewis Carrol
    • Caroline Casey
    • Paulo Coelho/Alchemist >
      • The Alchemist by
      • Paulo Coelho
    • John Coltrane >
      • John Coltrane
    • Steven Covey >
      • Steven Covey
      • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People/Steven Covey
    • Charlie Chaplin
    • Noam Chomsky
    • Deepak Chopra >
      • Ask Deepak
      • Deepak Chopra
    • Winston Churchill
    • Mihaly Csikszentmihaly
    • Ram Dass
    • Simone De Beauvoir
    • Anthony De Mello
    • Daniel Dennett
    • Shanti Devi
    • Junot Diaz
    • WALT DISNEY QUOTES
    • Fyodor Dostoyevsky >
      • Fyodor Dostoyevsky/ The Brothers Karamazov
    • Carol Dweck/Mindsets
    • Bob Dylan >
      • Bob Dylan
    • Thomas Edison Quiz
    • Albert Einstein >
      • Albert Einstein
    • T. S. Eliot
    • Ralph Waldo Emerson
    • Jane Eyre
    • Anneliese Marie Frank
    • William Faulkner
    • F Scott Fitsgerald >
      • The Roaring 20's
      • F Scott Fitzgerald 2014-15
      • The Great Gatsby
    • Benjamin Franklin
    • Robert Frost
    • Stephen Fry >
      • Stephen Fry
    • Neil Gaiman
    • Dan Gilbert
    • Malcom Gladwell
    • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
    • Gurdjieff
    • Steven Hawking /black Holes
    • Hafez/Hafiz #1 >
      • Hafez/Hafiz Poems #2
      • Hafez/Hafiz #3
      • Hafez/Hafiz #4
      • Hafez #5 >
        • Hafiz Poems #7
      • Hafez Poems #6
      • Hafez Poems #8
    • Thich Nhat Hanh
    • Tyrone Hayes
    • Ernest Hemingway
    • Hermann Hesse >
      • Siddhartha Quotes
    • Christopher Hitchens
    • HOU HSIAO-HSIEN
    • Langston Hughes >
      • Langston Hughes/ Poems
      • Langston Hughes
    • Aldous Huxley >
      • Brave New World 4/15 >
        • Secret Societies >
          • The Knights Templar
          • The Freemasons
          • The Rosicrucians
          • The Illuminati
          • The Carbonari
        • BNW/ Chemtrails vs Contrails
        • BNW/ Unit Plan
        • BNW/ 2015
        • BNW/ TED
        • BNW/ William Blake/Doors of Perception
        • BNW/ Details #1
        • BNW/ Details #2
        • BNW/ Soma= DMT?
        • BNW/ Futuristic Movie Trailers
        • BNW/ Dystopia vs Utopia
        • BNW vs 1984
        • BNW/ Orwell vs Huxley
        • BNW/ Noam Chomsky
        • BNW/ Huxley Complete Works
        • BNW/ Vedanta and Huxley
        • BNW/ Advaita Vedanta
        • BNW/ Bohemian Grove
        • BNW/ Corporate Deceit
        • BNW/ Shakespeare and Religion by Huxley
        • BNW/ Geo-Engineering
        • BNW/ About Aldous Huxley
        • BNW/ Doors
        • BNW/ Conspiracy?
        • BNW/1984 Synthetic Telepathy
        • BNW/ May 13th
        • BNW/ Transhumanism
        • BNW/ What is DMT? Soma?
        • BNW/ Psychological Warfare
        • BNW/ NWO
      • Brave New World 2014 >
        • Brave New World 2014 >
          • Brave New World #5 2014
          • Oligarcy
          • Transhumanism
          • Agenda 21
          • Inequality For All
          • Inequality For All
          • Brainwash Update
          • Globalization
        • Brave New World Quotes
        • Brave New World >
          • Brave New World #2
          • Brave New World #3
          • Brave New World #4
          • enotes/Brave New World
          • Brave New World Vocabulary Words
          • Aldous Huxley
          • Bio-Engineering
          • CHEM-TRAILS
          • Genetic Engineering
          • Aldous Huxley
          • Aldous Huxley - Videos
      • Brave New World 1/2015
    • Pir Zia Inayat-Khan/Sufi
    • Phil Jackson
    • Eta James
    • James Joyce
    • Mahatma Ghandhi
    • John Irving
    • Carl Gustav Jung/Interview >
      • C. G. Jung/Quotes
    • Jon Kabat-Zinn
    • Kabir
    • Franz Kafka >
      • Franz Kafka
    • Immanuel Kant
    • Byron Katie
    • Nikos Kazantzakis
    • John Keats
    • John F. Kennedy
    • Kibir
    • Stephen King
    • Alfie kohn
    • Matt Kohn >
      • Pleiadian Broadcast ???
    • Jeff Koons
    • Jiddu Krishnamurti
    • Rama Krishna
    • Stanley Kubrick >
      • Stanley Kubrick
    • Llewellyn Vaughan Lee
    • Best of David Letterman
    • C S Lewis
    • Jack London
    • David Lynch
    • Anandamayi Ma
    • Ramana Maharshi
    • Nelson Mandela
    • Og Mandino/Greatest Salesman >
      • Og Mandino/Summary
    • Karl Marx >
      • Karl Marx
    • John Mayer
    • Bert McCoy Quotes
    • Connor McGregor
    • Herman Melville
    • Lionel Messi
    • Dan Millman >
      • Peaceful Warrior
    • Hsin Hsin Ming The Book of Nothing
    • Mooji #1 >
      • Mooji/Avadhuta Gita #2
      • Mooji / Video & Sayings #3
      • Mooji #4
      • Mooji #5
    • Bill Moyer
    • Henry Miller
    • Thelonious Monk
    • Van Morrison
    • Elon Musk >
      • Elon Musk
    • Caroline Myss
    • Nietzsche >
      • Nietzsche
    • Anais Nin
    • Nissargadatta >
      • Nissargadatta I Am That
      • Nisargadatta Maharaj
    • John Oliver
    • John O'Donohue
    • Suze Orman
    • George Orwell >
      • 1984
      • 1984 >
        • george orwell biography
        • 1984 #1
    • Osho
    • Papaji
    • Pablo Picasso
    • Plato
    • Edgar Allen Poe
    • William Sydney Porter
    • Premananda
    • Marcel Proust
    • Anthony Robbins >
      • Tony Robbins
    • Robert Reich
    • Sen no Rikyu/Zen
    • Jim Rohn
    • Teddy Roosevelt quotes >
      • Victorian Period (1833-1901) >
        • Victorian Era
        • Robert Browning
        • Charles Dickens
        • Edgar Allen Poe
        • Alfred Lord Tennyson
    • Don Miguel Ruiz/The 4 Agreements
    • Rumi >
      • Rumi/Dr. Omid Safi
      • Rumi/Coleman Barks #1
      • Rumi/Coleman Barks #2
      • Rumi/Coleman Barks #3
      • Rumi/Coleman Barks #4
    • Bertrand Russell
    • Sadhguru #1 >
      • Sadhguru #2
      • Sounds of Isha #3
      • Sounds of Isha
      • Isha
    • Stefan Sagmeister
    • Joel Salatin
    • Samarpan
    • Michael Sandel
    • Dr. Seus
    • Shakespeare
    • Anoushka Shankar
    • Percy Bysshe Shelley >
      • Mary Shelly
    • Nickolas Sparks
    • Bruce Springsteen
    • Ralph Steadman
    • David Steindl-Rast
    • Robert Louis Stevenson >
      • Rober Louis Stevenson 2
      • Robert Louis Stevenson 3 >
        • Robert Louis Stevenson Poems
        • Jekyll/2007
        • Dr> Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Audio $$ >
          • Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Videos)
          • Key Facts
        • Treasure Island/RLS
    • Teal Swan
    • Rabindrath Tagore
    • Henry David Thoreau
    • Nikola Tesla
    • Eckhart Tolle
    • Leo Tolstoy
    • Brian Tracy
    • Mark Twain
    • Irina Tweedie
    • Lao Tzu/Tao/The Way
    • Ludwig van Beethoven
    • Swami Vivekananda
    • Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
    • Kurt Vonnegut
    • David Foster Wallace >
      • David Foster Wallace
    • Neale Donald Walsch
    • George Washington
    • Holocaust/Night/Elie Weisel >
      • Night/Elie Weisel #2 >
        • Elie Weisel Pictures
    • Orson Welles
    • Oscar Wilde
    • Walt Whitman
    • Marianne Williamson >
      • Marianne Williamson
      • Marianne Williamson
    • Ed Witten
    • John Wooden
    • William Wordsworth
    • W B Yeats
    • Zig Ziglar
    • Zizek
  • English 9
    • Week 1-4/ Uncovering the Self >
      • Uncovering the Self
    • Grade 9/Unit 1/ Writing Task
    • Grade 9/Unit 2
    • Grade 9/Unit 3
    • English 9/Unit 4
    • English 9 TEDs
    • English 3D
    • English 3D
    • Read 180/Intensive 2
  • TED
    • TED Talks >
      • Videos #34 >
        • Videos #35
        • Videos #36
        • Videos #37
        • Videos #38
      • ted talks
      • TED #2
      • TED #3
      • TED X
      • TedxWomen
    • Ted Ed >
      • TED.Ed #1
      • Ted Ed #2
      • Ted Ed #3
      • Ted Ed #4
      • Ted Ed #5
      • Ted Ed #6
      • TED Ed #8
  • Poetry
    • Haiku >
      • Haiku
    • Quotes on Poetry >
      • Poets on Poetry
    • TED Poetry >
      • Rives Poetry >
        • Beats
    • Poetry Images
    • Button Poetry
    • Our Life In Poetry
    • Poetry "Random"
    • Fredrico Lorca
  • Music
    • John lennon
    • Rolling Stones
    • Light in Babylon
    • Resham Firiri/ Nepal
    • Guitar
    • Estas Tonne
    • Andres Segovia/ Guitar
    • Anna RF
    • Gipsy Kings
    • Hindi Songs
    • Music #2
    • JAZZ/ Louis Armstrong
    • Blues
    • The Beatles
    • om
    • Jack Johnson
    • Jazz
    • NPR Music
    • Krishna Das
  • Philosophy
    • Economics >
      • Economic Philosophy
    • Existentialism Quotes >
      • Hegel
    • The School of Life
  • Untitled
  • Letters of Note Website
  • Awakening
  • Mantras
  • Google
  • Last Minute Substitute Ideas
  • linguistics
  • Short Stories
    • The Emperor's Three Questions
    • Short Stories
    • Sonata for Harp and Bicycle by Joan Aiken
    • Carry Your Own Skis by Lian Dolan >
      • Snowboard Playlist/mix
    • The Gift of the Magi/O. Henry
    • The Necklace/Maupassant
    • The Most Dangerous Game/Connell
  • Novels
    • Catcher in the Rye
    • I know Why the Caged Bird Sings
    • Lord of the Flies
    • Of Mice and Men
    • A Single Shard
    • Stargirl/ >
      • Jerry Spinelli
      • Stargirl/ Characters
  • Comedy
  • Google Project Street Art
  • HAARP
  • People Are Awesome
  • Health Care
  • Fracking
  • Girls in Sports/Gender Equality
  • Untitled
  • Music/Sufi
    • History of the Blues
    • Sufi Music
  • Literature Analysis
  • Avadhuta Gita .pdf
  • Rumi/Deepak Chopra
  • Present Moment/The Now/The Zone
  • English Language Explained/Maps
  • How to trademark a phrase!
  • Narration and Literature
  • Mahatria
  • Teaching Stories
  • Harlem Renaissance Music/and some Sara Vaughan
    • Harlem Renaissance Doc
  • Oasis of the Seas
  • Ap History Exam Prep
  • Advertising Techniques
  • Academic Literary Terms
  • Untitled
    • Untitled
  • Happiness 1
    • Happiness 2
    • How to get Happy!
    • Philosophy, A guide to Happiness
    • Toxic People
    • A Guide to Happiness (Philosophy)
    • The Power of Time Off
  • Pierre Bezuhov/From War and Peace
  • Writing
    • 25 Phrases That Are Said Wrong
    • Writing Advice/ Roberto Bolano >
      • George Orwell/ Why I Write
    • Grammar >
      • Pronouns Overused
      • Nouns
      • Punctuation
    • Writing/Journaling >
      • Journaling/Goalsetting >
        • Journaling
        • 180 Journaling Prompts
        • 100 Benefits of Journaling
        • Colgate's Living Writers
      • Cool Stuff to Journal About >
        • Big Think >
          • Big Thinks
        • Sanskrit Terms
        • Spirit Animals/Totems >
          • Power Animals
        • Hip-Hop
        • Met-Publications
        • Google "Art Project"
        • Old Guys Telling Jokes
        • Vimeo
        • UFO >
          • DARPA
          • Area 51
        • Videos 1-10 >
          • Videos #1
          • Videos #2
          • Videos #3
          • Videos #4
          • Videos #5
          • Videos #6
          • Videos #7
          • Videos #8
          • Videos #9
          • Videos #10 >
            • Videos 11-20 >
              • Videos #11
              • Videos #12
              • Videos #14
              • Videos #15
              • Videos #16
              • Videos #17
              • Videos #18
              • Videos #19
              • Videos #20
            • Videos #21-30 >
              • Videos #21
              • Videos #22
              • Videos #23
              • Videos #24
              • Videos #25
              • Videos #26
              • Videos #27
              • Videos #28
              • Videos #29
              • Videos #30
              • Videos 31-40 >
                • Videos #31
                • Videos #32
                • Videos #33
      • MIT Writing/Reading Class Syllabus
      • The Art of War
    • Writing
    • Literacy
    • Arguementative Essay Writing
    • Writing Tips
    • Some writers on writing >
      • Ayn Rand
    • Best Essays Ever!
    • How To Write
    • Writing Advice
    • "Quick Writes"
    • Expository Writing
    • CAHSEE Essay
    • Collection of "How to write" videos
    • Common Errors in Writing
    • Grammar #1 >
      • Grammar
      • Adverbial Clause
    • Composition Forum
    • Symbolism
    • Final Essay Resources
  • Environmental/Health Designs/Concerns
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • Sugar/Poison
    • Digital Citizenship Cyberbullying 6/15 >
      • Risky Relationships On-line
      • Digital Footprint
    • Environment >
      • Water
      • Plastic Water Bottles 1
      • Plastic Water Bottles 2
      • Fluoridation
      • Fluoride
      • Cell Phones Cause Cancer
      • Oil/Tar Sands
      • Treehugger.com
      • hand sanitizer
      • Skin Lotions
    • RSA Videos
    • crashcourse! >
      • crashcourse 2!
    • Environmental
    • Design in a Nutshell >
      • Design
      • Designers
      • Open-University Bike Design
    • Beauty Industry Modeling
    • Minute Physics >
      • Minute Physics 2
    • How it's Made
    • Make:
    • Etsy Art and Culture
    • PBS Off/Soft Book
    • Iron-on Transfers
  • Cool Stuff to Write About!
    • Writers on Writing
    • Writer's Block...HaHa
    • Soccer >
      • Soccer
    • Amazing
    • Medicine/Doc Mike Evans
    • Mysteries & Scandals
    • Sex Education >
      • Teen Pregnancy
    • Tax The Rich?
    • The Creators Project >
      • The Creators Project
    • Harvard Thinks Big
    • Coffee
    • Art Misc >
      • MTV unplugged
    • Pulp Magazine Project
    • Thinker
    • Gun Control
    • Suicide
    • Citizen Hearing on Disclosure 2013
    • Witness Testimony
    • Ufo
    • Archaeology
    • The Truth About...
    • Helping Others
    • New Yorker Cartoons
    • Prostetics
    • Astronaut
    • Creators Project
    • Wearable Project
    • Minecraft
    • Archives/Various
    • Upworthy
    • Reincarnation
    • Undocumented
  • Character/ How to build it!
    • Red Frost/ Motivation
    • Confidence
    • Responsibility
    • Decision Making
  • Untitled
  • bio.com
  • The Science of Happiness
  • Gnostic Society Library
  • Sign Language Hip Hop
  • Summer Reading 2015
    • Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick
  • Summer School 2015
    • Is Google making us stupid?
    • Does Technology Make Us Smarter?
  • News Reporting/Reading Same Script
  • English 12a
    • Unit 1 Week (1 & 2) "Summer Reading Assignment: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand" >
      • Unbroken Characters
      • Unbroken/ Prezi
    • Unit 3 Week (6-10) "Value of Life"
    • Unit 4 Week (9-12) "Racial Profiling"
  • Understanding Stress
  • Untitled
  • Drums and Drummers
  • Boy Scouts
    • Boy Scout Merit Badge Info
    • Climbing Knots/Boy Scouts
  • Unbroken
    • Unbroken Vocabulary
    • Unbroken Characters
    • Unbroken Discussion Questions
    • louie Zamperini and the 1936 Olympics
    • Louie Zamperini goes to War
    • Hiroshima
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - ZAMP and HIS SUPER MAN B-24
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - B-24s IN COMBAT
    • How Accurate is the movie Unbroken?
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - SUPER MAN ATTACKS - FUNAFUTI and NAURU
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - A GREEN HORNET and GREY SHARKS
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - PRISON CAMPS - OFUNA and OMORI
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - NAOETSU and CAMP B-4
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - THE BIRD - THEN AND LATER
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - WHEN LOUIE MET BILLY
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - FORGIVENESS
    • Unbroken vs History
    • USA/Japan POWs
    • Norden Bombsight
    • B-24 Bomber
    • Can We Drink Salt Water?
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - KWAJALEIN - EXECUTION ISLAND
  • Romeo & Juliet/ Classical Music/Deep Purple, Etc,..
  • How to be Happy!
  • Thoughts
  • J.K. Rowlings
  • James Patterson/ Writing
  • Business Planning
  • Personal Statement
    • www.essayhell.com
    • Show not Tell in Writing
    • Map Out The College App Essay
  • The Value of Life
    • John Paul Sartre/ bad faith
    • Addicted to Suffering/ Red Ribbon 2015
    • Actuarial Table
    • Value of Life Quotes
    • Ric Elias
    • Matt Whoolery/ How to be Unhappy
    • Jill Bolte Taylor
    • What Makes a Life Worth Living?
    • "What is a Life Worth?" AmandaRipley
  • Top Business Movie Speeches
  • Overcoming Hopelessness
  • Upcoming Movies to Watch!!
  • Finding Your Life Purpose
  • 20 Free Tools for Entrepreneurs
  • www.recitethis.com
  • Best Websitesfor Teaching 201 5
  • Best Websites for Teaching 2014
  • Best Websites for Teaching 2013
  • Test of Three
  • What I Wish I Knew In High School
  • Best Practices
  • Value of Life 11/15
  • 8 Iconic Movie Rules To Live By
  • Kathryn Schulz/ On Being Wrong
  • Dealing With Anger
  • Learning The Stock Market
  • What To Do in Your Life
  • TED Talks
  • Poetry of Perception/ Harvard
  • New Page
  • funniest jokes
  • Opinion Paper Basics
  • Found Poems for, Into The Wild
  • willpower
  • schoolofthought.org
  • Marc & Angel
  • Restorative Justice
  • Coloring Books
  • Verbal Workout/Vocab from books
  • http://www.ethosconsultancynz.com/
  • Pindex
  • Understanding Assignments
  • Commencement Speeches
  • Writing Prompts
  • Personal Statement
  • English 12 Writing Prompts
  • Block Letter Format
  • PIQ
  • El Toro High School Class of 1979
  • SNL
  • Blackout Poems
  • Nerdwriter1
  • Internet Movie Script Database
  • Unit 5
  • Product Placement in Films
  • Tablets of Destiny
  • Public Service Videos
  • Instramental Beats For Poetry
  • Sexual Innuendos
  • Animal Totems
  • English 9 Ted Talks
  • Animal Farm
  • John F. Kennedy 3
  • How to be Happy?
  • The Boiling Frog Story
  • Lord Of The Flies
  • 2017 Summer Reading
  • Fashion History
  • Ayahuasca
  • Russian Dystopian Novel "We" George Orwell/Aldous Huxley
  • Smart Websites
    • 99U.com
  • Before I Fall
  • Quotes on Manners
  • Eng 12/ Good Food Bad Food
  • Summer Reading 2017
  • New Page
  • Live and Learn by Louise Menand
  • How to write an essay?
    • Vanderbilt Writing Resources
  • Ishmael Nazario
  • False Flags False attacks
  • Millikan Soccer Team
    • Possession Soccer
  • White Sounds for feeling Good
  • Food Unit English 12b
  • 1984 (New 2018)
    • 1984 Vocabulary Words
  • Are we living in the Matrix?
  • Stand-up Poetry
  • Sativacation
  • McCoy Family History
  • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
  • Concept Attainment
  • Get Rid of PTSD with a Stellate Ganglion Block
  • English 9 2018-19
  • 9/11
  • Chef Jeremiah Tower
  • Correy Goode
  • How to get out of jury duty
  • Rupi Kaur Poet
  • Greek Stuff to journal about
  • Romeo and Juliet
  • Should You Use "I"?
  • The Odyssey Explained
  • Field of Dreams
  • Advice to your younger self
  • The Boiling Frog Story
  • GATE Students
  • 30 Things You Can Do To Promote Creativity
  • GATE Students in the Visual arts
  • Meditation
  • Boy Scout Eagle Project Information
  • Hunter S Thompson
  • Character Development
  • How to spot a liar
  • The History of Drunk
  • How to Draw Like an architect
  • Cool Interviews
  • Ouija Board Origins
    • Ouija Board Origins
  • Free Writing Courses
  • The Vatican
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978
  • Artist Videos
  • Art
  • Ai Weiwei
  • Jannis Kounelles
  • Jose Luis Malo
_
A Modest Proposal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia   (Redirected from A modest proposal) A Modest Proposal   Author(s) Jonathan Swift Country Kingdom of Great Britain Language English Genre(s) Satirical Essay Publication date 1729 A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick,[1] commonly referred to as A Modest Proposal, is a Juvenalian satirical essay written and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729. Swift suggests that impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies.[2] This satirical hyperbole mocks heartless attitudes towards the poor, as well as Irish policy in general.

In English writing, the phrase "a modest proposal" is now conventionally an allusion to this style of straight-faced satire.


Swift goes to great lengths to support his argument, including a list of possible preparation styles for the children, and calculations showing the financial benefits of his suggestion. He uses methods of argument throughout his essay which lampoon then-influential William Petty and the social engineering popular among followers of Francis Bacon. These lampoons include appealing to the authority of "a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London" and "the famous Psalmanazar, a native of the island Formosa" (who had already confessed to not being from Formosa in 1706). This essay is widely held to be one of the greatest examples of sustained irony in the history of the English language. Much of its shock value derives from the fact that the first portion of the essay describes the plight of starving beggars in Ireland, so that the reader is unprepared for the surprise of Swift's solution when he states, "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 ragoust."[1]

Readers unacquainted with its reputation as a satirical work often do not immediately realize that Swift was not seriously proposing cannibalism and infanticide, nor would readers unfamiliar with the satires of Horace and Juvenal recognize that Swift's essay follows the rules and structure of Latin satires.

The satirical element of the pamphlet is often only understood after the reader notes the allusions made by Swift to the attitudes of landlords, such as the following: "I grant this food may 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." Swift extends the metaphor to get in a few jibes at England’s mistreatment of Ireland, noting that "For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, and flesh being of too tender a consistence, to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country, which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it."

In the tradition of Roman satire, Swift introduces the reforms he is actually suggesting by deriding them:

Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound: Of using neither clothes, nor household furniture, except what is of our own growth and manufacture: Of utterly rejecting the materials and instruments that promote foreign luxury: Of curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in our women: Of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and temperance: Of learning to love our country, wherein we differ even from Laplanders, and the inhabitants of Topinamboo: Of quitting our animosities and factions, nor acting any longer like the Jews, who were murdering one another at the very moment their city was taken: Of being a little cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing: Of teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy towards their tenants. Lastly, of putting a spirit of honesty, industry, and skill into our shop-keepers, who, if a resolution could now be taken to buy only our native goods, would immediately unite to cheat and exact upon us in the price, the measure, and the goodness, nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair proposal of just dealing, though often and earnestly invited to it. Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, 'till he hath at least some glympse of hope, that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into practice. Population solutions George Wittkowsky argued that Swift’s main target in A Modest Proposal was not the conditions in Ireland, but rather the can-do spirit of the times that led people to devise a number of illogical schemes that would purportedly solve social and economic ills.[3] Swift was especially insulted by projects that tried to fix population and labor issues with a simple cure-all solution.[4] A memorable example of these sorts of schemes "involved the idea of running the poor through a joint-stock company".[4] In response, Swift’s Modest Proposal was "a burlesque of projects concerning the poor",[5] that were in vogue during the early 18th century.

A Modest Proposal also targets the calculating way people perceived the poor in designing their projects. The pamphlet targets reformers who "regard people as commodities".[6] In the piece, Swift adopts the "technique of a political arithmetician"[7] to show the utter ridiculousness of trying to prove any proposal with dispassionate statistics.

Critics differ about Swift’s intentions in using this faux-mathematical philosophy. Edmund Wilson argues that statistically "the logic of the 'Modest proposal' can be compared with defense of crime (arrogated to Marx) in which he argues that crime takes care of the superfluous population".[7] Wittkowsky counters that Swift's satiric use of statistical analysis is an effort to enhance his satire that "springs from a spirit of bitter mockery, not from the delight in calculations for their own sake".[8]

Rhetoric Charles K. Smith argues that Swift’s rhetorical style persuades the reader to detest the speaker and pity the Irish. Swift’s specific strategy is twofold, using a "trap"[9] to create sympathy for the Irish and a dislike of the narrator who, in the span of one sentence, "details vividly and with rhetorical emphasis the grinding poverty" but feels emotion solely for members of his own class.[10] Swift’s use of gripping details of poverty and his narrator’s cool approach towards them create "two opposing points of view" that "alienate the reader, perhaps unconsciously, from a narrator who can view with 'melancholy' detachment a subject that Swift has directed us, rhetorically, to see in a much less detached way."[11]

Swift has his proposer further degrade the Irish by using language ordinarily reserved for animals. Lewis argues that the speaker uses "the vocabulary of animal husbandry"[12] to describe the Irish. Once the children have been commodified, Swift’s rhetoric can easily turn "people into animals, then meat, and from meat, logically, into tonnage worth a price per pound".[12]

Swift uses the proposer’s serious tone to highlight the absurdity of his proposal. In making his argument, the speaker uses the conventional, text book approved order of argument from Swift’s time.[13] The contrast between the "careful control against the almost inconceivable perversion of his scheme" and "the ridiculousness of the proposal" create a situation in which the reader has "to consider just what perverted values and assumptions would allow such a diligent, thoughtful, and conventional man to propose so perverse a plan".[13]

Tertullian’s Apology James Johnson argued that A Modest Proposal was largely influenced and inspired by Tertullian’s Apology: a satirical attack against early Roman persecution of Christianity. James William Johnson believes that Swift saw major similarities between the two situations.[14] Johnson notes Swift’s obvious affinity for Tertullian and the bold stylistic and structural similarities between the works A Modest Proposal and Apology.[15] In structure, Johnson points out the same central theme, that of cannibalism and the eating of babies as well as the same final argument, that "human depravity is such that men will attempt to justify their own cruelty by accusing their victims of being lower than human."[14] Stylistically, Swift and Tertullian share the same command of sarcasm and language.[14] In agreement with Johnson, Donald C. Baker points out the similarity between both authors' tones and use of irony. Baker notes the uncanny way that both authors imply an ironic "justification by ownership" over the subject of sacrificing children—Tertullian while attacking pagan parents, and Swift while attacking the English mistreatment of the Irish poor.[16]

It has also been argued that A Modest Proposal was, at least in part, a response to the 1728 essay The Generous Projector or, A Friendly Proposal to Prevent Murder and Other Enormous Abuses, By Erecting an Hospital for Foundlings and Bastard Children by Swift's rival Daniel Defoe.[17]

Economic themes Robert Phiddian's article "Have you eaten yet? The Reader in A Modest Proposal" focuses on two aspects of A Modest Proposal: the voice of Swift and the voice of the Proposer. Phiddian stresses that a reader of the pamphlet must learn to distinguish between the satiric voice of Jonathan Swift and the apparent economic projections of the Proposer. He reminds readers that "there is a gap between the narrator’s meaning and the text’s, and that a moral-political argument is being carried out by means of parody".[18]

While Swift’s proposal is obviously not a serious economic proposal, George Wittkowsky, author of "Swift’s Modest Proposal: The Biography of an Early Georgian Pamphlet", argues that to understand the piece fully, it is important to understand the economics of Swift’s time. Wittowsky argues that not enough critics have taken the time to focus directly on the mercantilism and theories of labor in 18th century England. "[I]f one regards the Modest Proposal simply as a criticism of condition, about all one can say is that conditions were bad and that Swift's irony brilliantly underscored this fact".[19] At the start of a new industrial age in the 18th century, it was believed that "people are the riches of the nation", and there was a general faith in an economy that paid its workers low wages because high wages meant workers would work less.[20] Furthermore, "in the mercantilist view no child was too young to go into industry". In those times, the "somewhat more humane attitudes of an earlier day had all but disappeared and the laborer had come to be regarded as a commodity".[18]People are the riches of a nation

Louis A. Landa presents Swift’s A Modest Proposal as a critique of the popular and unjustified maxim of mercantilism in the 18th century that "people are the riches of a nation".[21] Swift presents the dire state of Ireland and shows that mere population itself, in Ireland’s case, did not always mean greater wealth and economy.[22] The uncontrolled maxim fails to take into account that a person that does not produce in an economic or political way makes a country poorer, not richer.[22] Swift also recognizes the implications of such a fact in making mercantilist philosophy a paradox: the wealth of a country is based on the poverty of the majority of its citizens.[22] Swift however, Landa argues, is not merely criticizing economic maxims but also addressing the fact that England was denying Irish citizens their natural rights and dehumanizing them by viewing them as a mere commodity.[22]

Modern usage

A Modest Proposal is included in many literature programs as an example of early modern western satire. It also serves as an exceptional introduction to the concept and use of argumentative language, lending itself well to secondary and post-secondary essay courses. Outside of the realm of English studies, A Modest Proposal is a relevant piece included in many comparative and global literature and history courses, as well as those of numerous other disciplines in the arts, humanities, and even the social sciences.

The essay has been emulated many times. In his book A Modest Proposal (1984), evangelical author Frank Schaeffer emulated Swift's work in social conservative polemic against abortion and euthanasia in a future dystopia that advocated recycling of aborted embryos and fetuses, as well as some disabled infants with compound intellectual, physical and physiological difficulties. (Such Baby Doe Rules cases were then a major concern of the pro-life movement of the early 1980s, which viewed selective treatment of those infants as disability discrimination.)

Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist, which contains hundreds of private letters written by Thompson over the years, contains a letter in which he uses A Modest Proposal's satire technique against the Vietnam War. Thompson writes a letter to a local Aspen newspaper informing them that, on Christmas Eve, he was going to use napalm to burn a number of dogs and hopefully any humans they find. This letter protests the burning of Vietnamese people occurring overseas.

[edit] In popular culture The game Orphan Feast on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim website is loosely based on A Modest Proposal.

The Sealab 2021 character Jodene Sparks references A Modest Proposal when trying to convince Debbie DuPree to eat her own baby.[23]

A Modest Proposal is the name of The University of Texas at Dallas' Alternative Student Newspaper, the monthly opinion paper of the University; it was also the name of a regular column in SWIFT Magazine of Harvard University, a satire publication that also takes its name from Jonathan Swift.

A Modest Proposal is mentioned in the 1996 film The Birdcage.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre writer/creator Kim Henkel cited "A Modest Proposal" as an influence in scripting his 2011 horror film "Boneboys," directed by Duane Graves and Justin Meeks.[24]

Controversial American political activist and disbarred attorney Jack Thompson's A Modest Video Game Proposal draws its title from A Modest Proposal.

On the December 13, 2010 episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen reads a passage of A Modest Proposal in support of Ted Turner's suggestions on reducing overpopulation by having poor people sell (to rich people) their right to bear a single child per family.

In Tanzania, a popular writer, columnist, and satirist, M. M. Mwanakijiji, has attempted to emulate Swift in his own "A Modest Proposal – On how Chagga People should be removed from Power and Positions of Affluence." For most Swahili speakers, the use of satire in writing is unfamiliar. This essay had the same shock value as the original "Modest Proposal" for those readers who had not been exposed to Swift.

Proudly powered by Weebly