As I Lay Dying - Spring Break Reading

Hi everyone! This is NOT required, but I did want to give you a place to go if you have questions while reading As I Lay Dying. Feel free to post questions and/or comments related to the novel at any time over break. I (Ms. Arko) will check the blog sporadically over break and help clarify and guide your reading. Enjoy the break (and the book)! :)

Guest Blogger - Christian C.

Since we have just finished reading Ethan Frome, I have decided to address a few topics that we were meant to base our reading notes on.

One topic that we discussed thoroughly in class was the importance of setting and its relation to the characters of the book. These conversations were directed towards the correlation between the out-dated, isolated town of Starkfield and Ethan. Another place related to Ethan that we didn’t touch on is the “small room behind the untenanted ‘best parlour’” where he often takes refuge from his dissatisfying life. This place is described in the first paragraph of chapter eight:
“Here he had nailed up shelves for his books, built himself a box-sofa out of boards and a mattress, laid out his papers on a kitchen-table, hung on the rough plaster wall an engraving of Abraham Lincoln and a calendar with ‘Thoughts from the Poets,’ and tried, with these meagre properties, to produce some likeness to the study of a ‘minister’ who had been kind to him and lent him books when he was at Worcester.”
The isolation and bareness of the room is representative of Ethan. However, Zeena is also affected by her setting in the novel. She reflects the run-down, invaluable home which she is usually contained to. In the prologue the Frome residence is described
“…in all its plaintive ugliness. The black wraith of deciduous creeper flapped from the porch, and the thin wooden walls, under their worn coat of paint, seemed to shiver in the wind…”

We also talked about the significance of the color red in class, but I’d like to mention a couple references that were not brought up. One of these is the fact that the pickle dish which Mattie (or “the cat”) breaks while Zeena is away. Mattie embraces the use of said dish while Zeena tucks it away on a high, safe shelf. Mattie’s use of the red plate magnifies the contrast between her and Zeena thus making her more appealing to Ethan. Another noteworthy inclusion of the color red can be found in chapter nine when Ethan is supposed to be taking Mattie to the Flats (when in reality they’re on the tour of fond memories building up to their attempted tag-team suicide):
“As they drove away the sun sank behind the hill and the pine-boles turned from red to grey. By a devious track between the fields they wound back to the Starkfield road. Under the open sky they light was still clear, with a reflection of cold red on the eastern hills.”
The color is being drained from Starkfield with Mattie’s departure. Throughout the novel, Edith Wharton uses imagery and symbolism to convey thoughts, feelings, personalities, and meanings that cannot be revealed through the unique, retelling-of-a-story point of view.

Guest Blogger - Martin C.

Recently, we finished reading Ethan Frome. While this story may have seemed slightly unexciting, the ending sure added an interesting twist. Ethan and Mattie's crippling injuries were debatably worse than death. As the narrator put it, "I don’t see’s there’s much difference between the Fromes up at the farm and the Fromes down in the graveyard." Instead of finally freeing himself from Zeena and from the responsibilities of life, Ethan was forced to spend the rest of his life with her, and with Mattie who had turned into almost a clone of Zeena. But you already know all this. I was wondering what people's opinions were when it came to this debate. Would it have been better for Ethan if he died? Or did he get lucky by surviving?Forgetting for a second, the seemingly obvious point that there are probably better ways to kill yourself than sledding into a tree, I think both answers were slightly correct. While actually dying would've been the easy way out, and he wouldn't have to live the rest of his life against his dreams, surviving it may have done one thing for him. It forced him to live up to his responsibilities and realize that one cannot run away from their problems. Whether or not this was easy, hopefully it did something for his character.Thoughts?

Guest Blogger - Steph O.

This week in class we are finishing Ethan Frome and i gotta say i feel really bad for Zeena because she loves Ethan however after seeing Mattie he no longer feels quite the same towards her. What i admire about Zeena is that she knew her husband and cousin were flirting behind her back, but after the accident she still took both of them in and cared for them until she was no longer able to. However i can't even imagine how hard it must be for Ethan to be married to the wrong woman? So in that way i feel bad for him too. A few things I wonder though, how come Ethan, and Mattie didn't try to commit suicide some other way? Why crash the sled? I also can't imagine how hard it had to be for Zeena to watch her husband slowly slip away to a person whom she evnied so deeply. What i was wondering about her is that why she let Ethan drive Mattie to the station? I mean i know it's because he argued for her to let him but she still could have put her foot down on the matter. I also wonder why she didn't demand that if he be the one to drive Mattie to the station than she must go with as well?

Guest Blogger - Karissa B.

Today in class we analyzed different topics in Ethan Frome. My group discussed the idea of power in relationships. It’s pretty obvious that Zeena is the dominant one in the relationship between her and Ethan. It’s strange because, although she has health complications and comes off as weak, she has a control over Ethan and Mattie, too. It seems as though she uses her poor health as a way to make Ethan feel bad for her and do whatever she wants him to. She tries to make him feel guilty about her situation on page 97 when Zeena says that she lost her health nursing Ethan’s mother. She then goes on to say “Yes, and my folks all told me at the time you couldn’t do no less than marry me after-“. (Wharton 98). This line reflects the circumstances under which Zeena and Ethan were married. Zeena’s character reminded me of the scene “A Poor Helpless Creature” in the play the Good Doctor. The character in the play is much more dramatic than Zeena, but both characters have the same pretense of seeming helpless. Zeena’s power over Ethan can also be seen on page 107 when Ethan is conversing with Mattie. “You can’t go, Matt! I won’t let you! She’s always had her way, but I mean to have mine.” Ethan tells Mattie that he’s going to take a stand against Zeena and forbid her from letting Mattie go. Prior to this conversation with Mattie, Ethan revealed that he does not have loving feelings for Zeena anymore. This is most obvious when he says, “Now she mastered him and he abhorred her.” (Wharton 103). It seems like in his relationship with Mattie, Ethan is more dominant. Ethan and Mattie are both fairly passive, quiet people though, so maybe it only seems that Ethan is more dominant because the reader can see what he is thinking and we don’t exactly know what is going on in Mattie’s head. Who do you think is more dominant in Mattie and Ethan’s relationship?

Guest Blogger - Megan S.

We just wrapped up Turn of the Screw, and I have one thing that I am still contemplating. That question is whether the children see the ghosts that the governess does or not. The governess makes it seem like they do, but as we all know, she’s not the most credible person at this point. At the end of the story, Miles and the governess are talking and he starts freaking out. “Is she here?...Miss Jessel, Miss Jessel!” (pg. 402). He then has the same reaction about Peter Quint, and proceeds to die. The story just ends there, and leaves you to contemplate. She seems to have created a lot of things in her mind as some sort of twisted fantasy that included becoming a governess for a man and believing she’d fall in love with him, even though he doesn’t live with or have anything to do with Miles or Flora, so frankly, I am not sure which way to go on this one. Part of me thinks that both Miles and Flora do see the ghosts because Miles runs out onto the lawn in the middle of the night and stares up at the tower, the same tower that the ghost of Quint “happens” to be standing on. He then comes up with a story that he wanted to be “bad” by breaking the rules, but I am not quite buying it. Also, the governess sees Flora staring out a window, one where Miss Jessel just “happens” to be looking in. The other part of me doesn’t because the governess just seems like a crazy lady who just made this all up in her head to create a ghost story to be told. Writing this has made me think a lot more about the issue, and I am starting to learn more towards the children actually do see the ghosts, just because there is a lot more evidence to back that up. What do you think? Turn of the screw has so many things that are left to be interpreted by the reader, some of which include whether or not the children see the ghosts, why the governess jumps to the conclusion that the woman she sees is Miss Jessel even though Mrs. Groves doesn’t say it like she did with the man, how Mrs. Groves knows right away that the man is Quint, if Mrs. Groves really believes the governess, and how Miles actually died.

Guest Blogger - Lacey B.

Hello all. Since we’ve now finished Turn of the Screw, let’s talk about the ghosts.

First of all, I still totally believe that the kids saw the ghosts. The things that happen, such as Miles and Flora seeming to be mesmerized by something outside (and then Miles all too quickly saying it was a “plan to be bad”) just feel like they’re all a little too coincidental. The governess claims to see Peter Quint’s ghost on the tower, and wouldn’t you know it – Miles just happens to be gazing at the top of the tower in the middle of the night. Now either these kids are somehow reading the governess’s mind, which would be a whole other creepy story in itself, or they’re seeing these ghosts. I understand that Miles says he’s just trying to be bad, but it really seems like he just doesn’t want the governess to find out what’s really going on… or the ghost inside him doesn’t. I might be thinking too deep into it, but I feel like if Miles and/or Flora are in fact possessed by a spirit, this spirit does not want to blow its cover to the governess, because let’s face it she’s a little bit on the “mentally unstable” side at this point. She even knows that if she confronts the kids, they’re going to lie about seeing them anyway, so it makes sense that it’s never clearly written out that they do or do not see them.

I also feel like that maybe Mrs. Grose has been through the same situation that the governess is currently going through. The impression that I get from Mrs. Grose is that she’s a little timid, almost like something had previously happened to make her that way. Encounters with entities, perhaps? Although, whenever the governess brings it up, Mrs. Grose basically just shrugs it off as no big deal, she doesn’t really seem to be afraid of talking about it or anything. But I think she refers to the children as such “angels” because she’s scared of them. Maybe because they made her seem crazy, just like they’re doing to the governess. I realize that may be a little bit broad for this story but it could happen!

Now, I do understand that a lot of people believe the kids are just nasty brats, but they ARE just little kids. I have 3 younger sisters, so I’d like to think I know a little bit about evil children – but as far as Miles and Flora go, I sincerely believe that there is something interfering with the way they are.

This particular aspect of the story obviously would be easier to elaborate on if the point of view wasn’t so limited, but it also then works in advantage of both whether the kids see the ghosts or not.

Guest Blogger - Conner G.

Well, i have chosen to not write about Turn of the Screw, because it is not too interesting to me. Instead, i will be extending on the topic of poetry. A lot of you might be sick of poetry because it's sooo hard to understand. personally, i choose to believe the opposite. i LOVE poetry because of it's abstract nature. And also you can't really be wrong (unless you're just making something up that makes absolutely no sense at all). The essay we had to write last Friday was on the poem, Icarus. I looked online, and couldn't find the poem we read in class, although there were many about Icarus. If Ms. Arko would be so kind as to post a link to the poem along with my blog that would be quite helpful :)

When i was first reading this poem, i had to read it many times to think about what the main point of my essay would be. After i thought about it for a while, i began to focus on the rhetorical question embedded within the poem: What was he doing aging in a suburban community" (or something along those lines). This made me parallel the question to another: What was he doing flying so close to the sun? i mean, he made wings out of feathers and wax and told specifically told to NOT fly close to the sun by his father. I believe this question satirizes the earlier question within the poem. when i was writing my analysis, the words flowed together so nicely, and it was almost as if i wasn't even writing an analysis; it was more like i was writing a story of my own. I realize that's somewhat of a confusing concept, and i didn't know how to word it, but that's the best I've got. After turning in my paper and the bell rang, i talked to some people, and i said, "Man that seemed really easy to understand..." and others would say they had no clue what they wrote down. so maybe it's just me. i have no clue. maybe "abstract thinking" is just my niche. What did others focus their essays on? i'd be interested in knowing if you remember!

Guest Blogger - Meghann K.

So, I think Turn of the Screw wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. At first, the narrative really kept screwing me up because of the ridiculously long sentences and quick shifts to different subjects. I had to keep going back over and over to understand what the Governess was even talking about. Also, I hated that the governess overused her pronouns, so then I would get confused about whom she was talking about. It took a long time to get used to the way Henry James was writing the story.

But after I got used to it, I got into the story. I really liked the overall plot and how everyone in our class wondered if Bruce Willis would show up at the very end. To be honest, the plot would make a really good horror movie (I apologize if there is one already. I'm not a big scary movie person.) and the Governess would probably die at the end instead of just holding Miles as he died. She'd be perfect: she's book smart but not street smart, much too trusting, naive, and loves her charges to much to believe they're evil. Add in some bad visual effects and some screaming, and you've got yourself a blockbuster hit!

So, I suppose I have to trust Ms. Arko from now on when she promises the book isn't that bad. I thought I was going to despise it, but once I got used to the narrative and dialogue, the story became pretty entertaining, especially when the Governess shrugs off obvious danger signals that she should pack up and leave that creepy manor, like when Miles is kicked out of school or when she sees Quint and doesn't tell anyone about it. If you see it as a horror movie, it's much better to read.

Blog Assignment #6 - Due Tuesday, March 23rd

Choose one of the titles listed below and identify the point of view used and how that point of view affects the telling of the story. 10 points

Beowulf
Grendel
The Canterbury Tales
Things Fall Apart
Candide
The Grapes of Wrath
The Catcher in the Rye
The Great Gatsby
To Kill a Mockingbird

Guest Blogger - Caitlin A.

Hello fellow students and readers of Turning of the screw. I am here to discuss the matter of the evil children in the book. I personally dislike children very much and for them to betrayed as angels in a somewhat horrific book gives me discomfort. First of all I do believe the children are evil and conspiring with the spirits. Yes it might seem that our dear governess has lost her mind do to all the pish posh that she has experienced, but that doesn’t take away the fact the children can see them (aka ghosts). Miles stands out in the middle of the yard looking up to where the governess had seen the ghost and Flora stands there all creepy like while this goes down. You can’t tell me that you don’t get a total creeper vibe from them. I personally think that the whole house and the children are haunted. The children being perfect, the perfect man, the perfect job…. There just isn’t something right about that. It could possibly all be plan to make the governess seem mad and be some sick and twisted game for the children and the demonic spirits that inhabit their bodies. But then again that is all just a theory. Now sure there could be someone who fights with me about how they aren’t demons because they are nice to the governess and Miles wants more friends’ blah blah blah.
But all I ask of you is to add up the facts before you read any further. Mrs. Grosse knows too much and tells way too little to the poor governess. The children are little creepers even though they have their sweet moments; the young man who hired the governess doesn’t want any contact with them. It is all a evil plan concocted by the children and their master! However this is just a theory of mine, feel free to voice your own.

Guest Blogger - Kelsey G.

When reading the Turn of the Screw I cannot help but notice the calmness of Mrs. Grose and the governess. The governess is constantly asking the housekeeper about the figures she is seeing but doesn’t run away or freak out in horror. “There was an alien object in view—a figure whose right of presence I instantly and passionately questioned” (35). The governess then proceeded to start staring at Flora and watch her reaction. Why? Most people when they see a ghost or mysterious object don’t study someone else but try to figure out what it is or run screaming elsewhere for help. Then to make matters stranger she tells Mrs. Grose about it and she also acts as if it is normal. She questions the governess but never really doubts that she saw anything because unknowing to the governess, Mrs. Grose saw it too. And not only does she see and know about the figures, but she knows who they are. If I were the governess I would be getting suspicious about Mrs. Grose’s knowledge and the fact that the two figures had previously worked at the house. It is hard to decide which of the two is acting stranger. Mrs. Grose doesn’t seem like a regular person because she knows so much. She too isn’t scared of the ghosts but doesn’t question their appearance like the governess does, but only questions the governess about her seeing them. It makes it seem like she knows more than she is leading on to which the governess has already started to question.
The other strange aspect of this story is the governess’s need to watch the children. I understand it is her job, but it seems more like she is stalking them. She starts but exclaiming how beautiful they are, “But it was a comfort that there could be no uneasiness in a connexion with anything so beatific as the radiant image of my little girl” (10). In the following chapters she just goes on about their actions and even calls them naïve and not smart enough to figure things out. When she is on the beach with Flora, Flora doesn’t see the ghost or she too isn’t scared by it. My guess is that she doesn’t see it, but hopefully the story will play out to make this clearer as to why no one is afraid of the ghosts. The last thing that really troubled me was the employer’s need to emphasize that the governess is to ask him nothing and figure everything out by herself. If I were to take up this offer I would be suspicious right away but the governess acted as if it meant nothing and took the job. Hopefully this too will be better explained later or it already has with the employer not wanting questions about the ghosts.

Guest Blogger - Eura C.

So first off, Turn of the Screw has proved itself to be a very interesting read. Going into the book, I wasn't entirely sure what the plot line was about; I think vaguely, in the back of my mind, I was mixing it up with Rape of the Lock. Anyways, finishing the first four chapters was pretty easy for me as they contained plenty of suspense and mystery. However, there were a few things that I couldn't help but wonder about. For starters, I think it's a little suspicious that both Flora and her brother, and Miles seem so perfect. In fact, whenever the main character, the governess, mentions them, she only uses words such as, "charming," "most beautiful," "divine." There's also the matter of Miles getting kicked out of boarding school because of a crime so heinous, the headmaster does not even mention it in his letter. Instead of investigating this further, the governess simply shrugs it off claiming that maybe the school was too harsh for the boy.

Also there are two other characters in the story that I'll definitely be paying close attention to: the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, and that man that the governess first saw on one of her usual walks. Mrs. Grose's character is definitely a bit dubious; when the governess first reaches Bly, it is noticed that the servant is, "so glad ... as to be positively on her guard against showing it too much," (299). When the governess questions about the former woman who held her position, Mrs. Grose dodges the subject and does not elaborate on the death (which by the way, did anyone ever see this death mentioned earlier in the story? It seemed to come out of nowhere). Then of course is the anonymous man in the tower. At first I thought it was maybe just the Master returning to visit his niece and nephew but then as the man was walking away, "He stopped at the other corner, but less long, and even as he turned away still markedly fixed me" (312). I don't know about everybody else, but when I read this I pictured an owl turning his head all the way because I can't imagine any other way that a person can "turn away" yet still hold their gaze on somebody.

The biggest thing that I think we should all pay attention to, however, is the narrator herself. As I researched more about the author, Henry James, I noticed that many wrote about his common use of unreliable narrators. The governess doesn't reveal very much about herself and it's possible that she could be delusional. She hears footsteps and a baby crying her first night meaning that either the house is haunted, or she's imagining things.

Overall, this has been a very interesting read so far and I'm excited to see what happens next!

Blog Assignment #5 - Due Tuesday, March 16th

Choose a different poem from Sound and Sense and use either DIDLS or the 5 -S strategy (in your green book) to analyze. Post the title of your poem along with your analysis. 15 points

Guest Blogger - Maddy B.

Because this week we have been studying and analyzing poems, I felt I should express my feelings about poetry. Poetry itself is very beautiful. It can be mad, sad, happy, excited, anxious, sarcastic, sympathetic, and almost any other adjective in the book. It doesn’t even necessarily need to rhyme. Anybody could compose an excellent poem if they put their mind to it; Poems can be about almost anything. Usually, though, poems have many different deeper meanings to them, even if it wasn’t meant to be analyzed. Many poets refuse to explain what they meant when composing a poem because of the fact that it is truly up to the reader themselves to understand the true meaning of the poem. That is a large part of the reason I find poetry interesting and beautiful. Up until recently, (ha ha), I enjoyed reading and analyzing poems. The reason for this is that no matter what the poet actually meant by writing the poem, you can interpret the poem any way you would like. You can connect it to something that recently happened in your life, or you can believe that it has absolutely no meaning. The interpreting is up to you, (Besides on the AP Lit exam). Learning to analyze correctly and answer multiple choice questions about poetry has been very confusing to me, yet very helpful and reassuring. It’s been confusing because of the fact that there IS many meanings of a particular poem, and up until recently I believed that it is up to the reader to understand and relate the underlying theme of the poem to their own life. I’ve learned, though, that just taking the time and really trying to understand and connect with the poem helps loads when it comes to analyzing. The SOAPStone and TPCAST has helped me greatly with that, because even though it may sometimes be a hassle, taking the time to actually study the poem and set out the basics of the passage can make a large difference when it comes to analyzing. Answering multiple choice questions, on the other hand, are even more difficult because of the fact that most of the time, there is more than one correct answer. Although analyzing and answering multiple choice questions about a poem can be very difficult to master, I’ve learned that truly studying and understanding the poem prior to analyzing is very helpful, along with simply understanding what the question or prompt is asking, taking the time to contemplate the answer, and THEN beginning the essay or answering the question. I think it would be interesting to hear what types of studying and analyzing techniques help you all to do your best when it comes to reading poetry.

Guest Blogger - Emilie T.

This week in class we have been analyzing poetry to prepare for the AP Literature test. The analysis techniques, TPCASTT and SOAPSTone, are meant to help us dig into the poem so that we have enough to write about in our essay. But once we tear into the poem, what is left? All of the words on the page become examples of literary devices. All of the beauty is destroyed in our quest to analyze the poem. We have been reading poems about poetry in class, so I found one online that agrees with my view that meaning is often forced from a poem. The poem can be found at http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/poetry/apple.html. Poetry is a form of literature that is supposed to be smooth and beautiful, even if the beauty is eerie or dark. We all read “To Paint a Water Lily” from a book by Ted Hughes. The poem talks about a green pond, which is the home to flies and dragonflies that rocket through the air. The poem is beautiful and abundant in imagery and literary devices, but what is left once we analyze it? Lines 22-26 say, “Now paint the long-necked lily-flower which, deep in both worlds, can be still as a painting, trembling hardly at all though the dragonfly alight, whatever horror nudge her root.” These lines personify the lily so that the reader can almost see or touch the lily itself. However, once the label is put on the quote, some of the magic of the imagery is lost. In our quest to label, categorize, and analyze the poetry, the beauty of the poem is set aside. We will be able to write an essay about the author’s use of personification to make the lily seem more real, but can you still see the dew on the lily? Can you see the colors? Can you smell the delicate scent of the lily? Can you feel the dragonfly as it lands? The poem becomes an assignment, the wonder is forgotten, and the poem is set aside because the magic can no longer be felt. Poetry should be read so that we can enjoy it. The poems that I remember are never the ones that we dissect and dismember in class. What do you think? Does the poem preserve its essence after it is analyzed, or have we uprooted the very soul of the poem, which becomes only words on a page?

Blog Assignment #4 - Due Tuesday, March 9th

Choose a poem from Sound and Sense and complete a TPCASTT or SOAPSTone analysis. Post the name of the poem, poet, and the page number along with your analysis. (You do NOT need to post the entire poem). 15 points

Guest Blogger - Tom F.

Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”, is in no way modest. The actual title of Swift’s work is “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” which right away just seems ridiculous. Swift pretended to be a politician and published his work in the newspaper right next to all the other government articles. Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” can be seen as a satire because he pretended to be a politician but at the same time he was making fun of the other politicians for not seeing the obvious solution that Ireland can just eat their new born babies and everything will be solved. Swift even did the numbers to support his solution to Ireland’s poverty “there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couple, who are able to maintain their own children, but this being granted there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand for those women who miscarry,” (Swift paragraph 6). Swift takes an absolutely disgusting idea and actually does the math for it. It just makes his solution seem that much more credible. These numbers almost seem as if they are facts. Swift took the time to think of all the positives that will come from eating Ireland’s infants, “the skin of which, artificially dressed, will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen” (Swift paragraph 16) and “supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be constant customers for infants flesh, besides others who might have it at merry meetings, particularly at weddings and christenings” (Swift paragraph 29). In Swift’s eyes eating babies could become a celebration meal for Baptists which is completely ironic. Celebrating the birth of a child, then an hour later eating a child to celebrate. In my eyes Swift almost over did this whole proposal, it is too well done to seem true.

Guest Blogger - Cadie E.

Since I’ve been taking AP Lit I’ve noticed that I analyze what I read so much more, I think deeply about other possible meanings and what is behind the story. It’s not justwith what I’m reading that I’m analyzing more either, it's even the little things, that probably don’t need to be analyzed, I see so much more in. And now that we’re studying Satire, I notice the parodies that are all over, they’re everywhere. Sometimes, even if I don’t understand the meaning behind it, I can still tell that something is being satirized. I bet even if someone watched a cartoon like SpongeBob or an episode of Fairly Odd Parents, they could find something being satirized. The satire in A Modest Proposal is genius because not only is it hilarious and ironic, it really could make sense and get people to think. Someone who had read this when it first came out may not have realized how satirical it was and could have taken this ‘proposal’ seriously. They hopefully wouldn’t agree with the proposal, but might have thought that Jonathon Swift had lost his senses. I want to know if any of the other students have found more satires now that we’ve gone into depth with it, and what they’ve found. Did you notice satire/parody somewhere unexpected or in something you’ve read/watched over and over again and now just realized the humor in it? And since satire is all about pointing out and learning something from the parody, what have you discovered?

Guest Blogger - Nijhum D.

As I was reading 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 public, by Jonathan Swift, I was wondering how anyone could believe such a thing. He wants people to EAT babies, and skin them into clothes and shoes! What kind of crazy person would even say? I know this is a satire article but how does one even come up with that? Swift tries to sound intelligent by using economic reasoning and has a moral stance however it's utterly ridiculous. He wants to fatten up the children and feed to the rich land owners. The child is to be given away at the age of one, because he/she only drinks the mother's milk thus causing no expense or burden to the family. He is a nationalist and wants to help his country, by getting rid of overpopulation, and underemployment, and with the use of this article he points out a very immoral yet logical way to improve the overall well-being of the nation.