Swift's Powerful Message in a Modest Proposal In the Holy Bible, Jesus Christ states that there will always be poor, pathetic, struggling masses and nothing we can do will ever completely eliminate this item. Swift also acknowledges the homeless, but in a different way than Christ. In "A Modest Proposal", the narrator expresses pity for the poor, but at the same time strives to maintain his social dominance over them. According to Swift, the common English-Irish people of the time live in a disgusting state, a fact of which he tries to make the English parliament aware. The poor Swift refers to are Catholics, peasants, and every homeless man, woman, and child in the entire kingdom. Swift fears that Parliament ignores the great socioeconomic distance between the growing number of peasants and the aristocracy, and that this distance has powerful repercussions. Swift delivers his message in essay form with satire, humor, and shock value as his weapons. Swift pursues his main point in the first paragraph: it is a melancholy object to those who walk through [Dublin]. . .when they see . . .female beggars, followed by three, four or six children, all dressed in rags and pestering each passenger for an alms... middle of paper... in Irish affairs, and furthermore, the expanding British Empire. Therefore "A Modest Proposal" does not present an answer to the social problems of its time, but ultimately raises more questions. Not questions of fact, but questions of a profound socio-philosophical nature. Works cited and consulted: Swift, Jonathan. “A modest proposal: to prevent the children of the poor in Ireland from being a burden to their parents or to the country and to make them useful to the public.” 1729. Rpt. into current issues and lingering questions. Ed. Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau. Boston, MA: St. Martin's 1996. 111-117. “Johathan Swift.” Library 1996-1997 1996 edition. CD-ROM. Redmond, WA: Microsoft, 1996.