A Modest Proposal

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Based on your own understanding, observations, studies, and experience, consider some of the effects of poverty on societies. How does income inequality contribute to the relationship between the wealthy and the poor in society? What other facets of society are impacted by wealth disparity?

Teaching Suggestion: This question dives into the heart of Swift’s satire and broaches the theme of Reform Efforts’ Failure to Address Income Equality in 18th-century Ireland. Students might make connections between the problem in Swift’s sphere to similar issues witnessed worldwide, nationally, regionally, or in their own communities. Students might discuss the effect that income inequality has on relations between social classes; if so, you might introduce the narrator of the essay as a presumably wealthy individual who proposes an absurd solution to addressing income inequality, thereby indicating that he is out-of-touch with the needs of the impoverished.

• This research article entitled “New Perspectives on Global Inequality Throughout History”  (Luiten van Zanden, et al) provides an academic analysis of income inequality and other societal disparities on a global scale.