Swift's persona, whose views are the opposite of Swift himself, falsely believes himself to be a reasonable person. He believes it is perfectly rational, and even kind, to suggest fattening and selling the babies of the poor for the rich to eat. The word "modest" as a way to describe this proposal shows that this utterly clueless narrator thinks his idea is reasonable. The word "modest" means unassuming. It means ordinary, as a modest home...
Swift's persona, whose views are the opposite of Swift himself, falsely believes himself to be a reasonable person. He believes it is perfectly rational, and even kind, to suggest fattening and selling the babies of the poor for the rich to eat. The word "modest" as a way to describe this proposal shows that this utterly clueless narrator thinks his idea is reasonable. The word "modest" means unassuming. It means ordinary, as a modest home could be described as very ordinary; however, this proposal is anything but ordinary.
The narrator also focuses closely on the nitty-gritty of such "rational" parts of his proposals as a careful calculation of the profitability of raising a baby for a year to be sold as food and showing how much "return" a poor mother would get on the investment. He talks about the benefits of the "commerce" in babies to such things as Ireland's balance of trade. By emphasizing these economic benefits, he completely loses sight of the moral depravity of what he is suggesting.
Through this narrator, Swift is arguing that viewing humans only in economic terms is dehumanizing. Humans are more than economic units and deserve genuine compassion that isn't based on profit and loss.
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