Student Name: *Student ID: *1.The last sentence in the first paragraphserves to reinforce the first sentence of the paragraphis ironic given the content of its paragraph and the following oneacts as a brief summation of the paragraphdiverts the reader from the horror of the preceding clauseis redundant and thus unnecessary to the overall meaning of the paragraph2.The narrator’s statement in lines 13-15 is ironic becauseobviously people would object to a decline in populationhe is actually advocating something beneficial to the peoplethe kingdom needs to increase its population, not decrease ithis proposal would improve the lives of the people in the kingdomthe obvious objection to his proposal is its cold-hearted cruelty3.The “other expedients” the narrator lists in lines 18-33 are significant becausethey are solutions that have already been tried but failedthey are proposals that Swift himself has long advocatedthey are resolutions that will obviously not workthey would help other countries, not just Irelandthey have proven too expensive for Ireland to implement4.The tone of the sentence in lines 34-36 could best be described assatiricaldesperatecynicalhumoroushesitant5.The irony of the last paragraph lies in the fact thatalthough the narrator says he would not benefit since his wife is past child-bearing, he could easily remarry a younger womanthe narrator says that he has no personal interest, yet he does since he lives in Irelandalthough the narrator professes to have only the public good in mind, he would attain great fame if his proposal were adoptedthe narrator would not profit from the proposal, but neither would he be faced with the prospect of selling his babythe narrator’s proposal would help the rich and the merchants as much as it would help the poor people for whom he says he is concerned6.The narrator emphasizes that this remedy is designed only for Ireland becauseother countries do not have the same overpopulation problemhe believes only the Irish would actually consider cannibalismthe commodity of Irish children would “not bear exportation” (line 41)he is calling attention to his country's backwardness and obstinacyhe does not wish to risk offending the English7.The intent of the author of this passage most probably is toshock politicians into addressing the problems of the poorexpress his anger at the poor who begged on the streetsentertain his readers with his fantastic proposaloffend a society that had rejected and belittled his ideasoffer a possible solution to a long-standing problem
