Irony in Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”

Make children into food items to fix the “Irish problem” and any other issue with the poor. These were the proposed actions made by Jonathan Swift in “A Modest Proposal.” A quintessential piece of irony, this piece was written by a man that 300 years ago equated the likes of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. Yes, it was a joke, but one said with the straightest face. Read more on what this means for irony.