Basing on Jonathan Swift's proposal, which is a modest proposal for preventing the children of the poor in Ireland, from being a burden either on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the public (1729), there are a number of surprise endings, most of them contributed to by a number of unanswered questions (Swift, 1995) . This essay will clearly identify the key surprise endings, and shall relate them to the points in the article where the elements identified actually confirm to surprise endings.
To begin with, the main surprise element within Swift’s proposal is his proposed radicle solution itself. In the proposal, he suggests that the children of the poor people of Ireland or the kingdom of Ireland as he called it throughout the proposal, should be sold to the butchers. The butchers, on the other hand, are to prepare steak out of the children and sell it to the residences of the kingdom of Ireland (Swift, 1995) . The surprise that’s element here is owed to the fact that, at beginning of the proposal, Swift expresses his sympathetic emotions towards poor beggars and their disadvantaged children, his sentiments, in the beginning, thusly elude the mind of the reader to the direction that the solution he intends to design will make life better for both the poor beggars and their children. In a way, Swift pointed out that, the future of these children was uncertain. When they grow up, they could either be thieves or even, may follow their family trees, with regards to begging for their basic needs, also they may flee from the kingdom of Ireland to Spain to continue practicing the family profession, Swift added. A dissimilarity is built in the reader’s mind between the beginning emotions created in the reader’s mind and the ultimate solution the author provides. As a reader, I expected a universal solution that may, not only have reduced the expenditures on the poor beggars by the kingdom of Ireland but may also have bettered the lives of the poor and their children. Not reduce the expenses and improve the lifestyle of the poor parents at the detriment of the lives of the poor children; this is the main surprising factor in the ridiculously proposed solution.
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Another element of a surprise ending within the proposal, clearly come out in how Swift justifies his proposal and its aftereffects once it is implemented. To Swift, his proposal will greatly reduce the expenditure of the kingdom of Ireland, instead, the proposal will upscale the lifestyle of the residents of Ireland by increasing the supply of tender meat (from sold and butchered children of poor beggar) (Abrams, 1999) . Also, he justifies that the income the poor beggars will gain from the sale of their children will greatly improve their lifestyle, more importantly, pool them out of the begging occupation. However, Swift does not express how the emotional challenge that will most definitely impact the parents of the children, once they sell their children to the butchers. This aspect imposes the surprise ending because Swift appears to be supportive of children’s right to life when he is condemning their future and concluding there is a better future for children (poor or not). Instead, his proposal speaks a different language, a complete opposite of the expected outcome. Selling and killing the poor children for their tender flesh cannot be a promising future for not only the children but also their families (parents mainly). The fate of the poor children as described in this proposal is inhumanly outrageous and therefore pose a surprise to the reader.
Despite the fate, this proposal instigates on life children from the poor beggar’s, Swift has total confidence in the success of his ridiculous proposal once implemented. This is another one of the surprising elements within the proposal, considering that there are some facts that will succumb the proposal if implemented. To begin with, overlook the poor families, he assumes they will be willing to sell their children at ten shillings a piece to the butchers, and also assuming that these parents are aware that their children will be slaughtered for tender meat. The essence of parenthood is the protection of their children from any harm whatsoever, Swift should have found a way to address this factual element otherwise, his proposal to a reader like me sounds hypothetical, with too many improbable solutions (Swift J. , 1964) . Another element of the proposal, and which the author overlooked, pertains to the eventualities in the long-term, assuming the proposal was implemented. It is most probable that; the kingdom of Ireland will be out of the supply of children from the poor families in due time. Assuming therefore, that the general Irish public shall have gotten addicted to tender human flesh, the most obvious solution then shall be for it to seek alternative sources of tender meat. This will introduce a much bigger problem, to mean that the safety of the children from the rich will not be guaranteed either. To a reader these are foreseeable facts, that are most likely to materialize if the proposal is implemented hence, creating a greater surprise ending to the proposal.
References
Abrams, M. H. (1999). The Norton Anthology of English Literature 7th ed. Vol. 1. NY: Norton.
Swift, J. (1964). A modest proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland from being a burden to their parents or country; and for making them beneficial to the publick (1729). In vol. 12 of Collected works, edited by Herbert Davis. Project Gutenberg . Retrieved from http://www. gutenberg. org/files/1080/1080-h/1080-h. htm.
Swift, J. (1995, February). A modest proposal for preventing the children of poor people from being a burthen to their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the public. In Child and Youth Care Forum (Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 5-12). Springer Netherlands.
