Asked by Amy

I was just reading the "Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift when I read something that seem ironic. The narrator said that women were "breeders" or "dams" but then the last sentence of the last paragraph states that he has a wife past childbearing age and his youngest child is 9. Emphasis on the youngest child and ignoring the fact that these women were beggars . He must of have more than one one child . So would he consider his wife a breeder too? He also said that he's has no child that he can use to beg for money. Which brings to the another question: Were they poor also before this publication? Was he kind of also referring his family to do
Answered by Writeacher
Are you sure he was writing autobiographically? Or maybe writing for political purposes?

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/modestproposal/section5.rhtml