Read the statement about Swift’s "A Modest Proposal."Swift artfully uses language to convey the undeniable fact that landlords have consistently mistreated the impoverished and "already devoured most of the parents" who would serve as "breeders."
Historical context helps readers understand a text by providing
Read the excerpt from "Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell.But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation, even among people who should and do know better. The debased language that I have been discussing is in some ways very convenient. Phrases like a not unjustifiable assumption, leaves much to be desired, would serve no good purpose, a consideration which we should do well to bear in mind, are a continuous temptation, a packet of aspirins always at one’s elbow.
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Read the excerpt from Thoughts and Sentiments.However, notwithstanding all that has been done and written against it, that brutish barbarity, and unparalelled injustice, is still carried on to a very great extent in the colonies, and with an avidity as insidious, cruel and oppressive as ever.
Read the excerpt from "A Modest Proposal."But, as to my self, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal, which, as it is wholly new, so it hath something solid and real, of no expence and little trouble, full in our own power, and whereby we can incur no danger in disobliging England.
Which is the best example of an explicit statement from Thoughts and Sentiments that shows Cugoano's beliefs about slavery?
Read the excerpt from "A Modest Proposal."Then as to the females, it would, I think, with humble submission, be a loss to the publick, because they soon would become breeders themselves: And besides, it is not improbable that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such a practice, (although indeed very unjustly) as a little bordering upon cruelty, which, I confess, hath always been with me the strongest objection against any project, how well soever intended.
Central idea: People in Utopia care about the common good.
Read the passage.(1) I think that schools should switch from using paper textbooks to using computer tablets. (2) Textbooks were effective in the pre-digital age, but now we live in a technology-based society, so schools need to get with the program and adopt a modern approach to learning. (3) In fact, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission said that "it’s time for the next stage” of learning with tablets and pointed out how textbooks are often out of date. (4) Opponents argue that tablets aren’t a good choice because initially they’re very expensive. (5) The secretary of education pointed out that tablets can be updated regularly, which saves money in the long run. (6) Not to mention the pluses of having the latest and greatest info! (7) Many experts agree that switching to tablets is important for the future of education.
Read the excerpt from "A Modest Proposal.”Then as to the females, it would, I think, with humble submission, be a loss to the publick, because they soon would become breeders themselves: And besides, it is not improbable that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such a practice, (although indeed very unjustly) as a little bordering upon cruelty, which, I confess, hath always been with me the strongest objection against any project, how well soever intended.
Read the excerpt from Woman in the Nineteenth Century by Margaret Fuller.A house is no home unless it contain food and fire for the mind as well as for the body. The female Greek, of our day, is as much in the street as the male to cry, "What news?" We doubt not it was the same in Athens of old. The women, shut out from the market-place, made up for it at the religious festivals. For human beings are not so constituted that they can live without expansion. If they do not get it in one way, they must in another, or perish.
Read the excerpt from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.In this style, argue tyrants of every denomination, from the weak king to the weak father of a family; they are all eager to crush reason; yet always assert that they usurp its throne only to be useful. Do you not act a similar part, when you force all women, by denying them civil and political rights, to remain immured in their families groping in the dark? For surely, Sir, you will not assert, that a duty can be binding which is not founded on reason? If indeed this be their destination, arguments may be drawn from reason: and thus augustly supported, the more understanding women acquire, the more they will be attached to their duty—comprehending it—for unless they comprehend it, unless their morals be fixed on the same immutable principle as those of man, no authority can make them discharge it in a virtuous manner.
Utopia reflects the time in which it was written because
Read the excerpt from Thoughts and Sentiments.But the whole business of slavery is an evil of the first magnitude, and a most horrible iniquity to traffic with slaves and souls of men; and an evil, sorry I am, that it still subsists, and more astonishing to think, that it is an iniquity committed amongst Christians, and contrary to all the genuine principles of Christianity, and yet carried on by men denominated thereby.Read the excerpt from Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African.That subject, handled in your striking manner, would ease the yoke (perhaps) of many—but if only of one—Gracious God!—what a feast to a benevolent heart!—and, sure I am, you are an epicurean in acts of charity.
Read the excerpt from Utopia.If these metals were laid up in any tower in the kingdom it would raise a jealousy of the Prince and Senate, and give birth to that foolish mistrust into which the people are apt to fall—a jealousy of their intending to sacrifice the interest of the public to their own private advantage. If they should work it into vessels, or any sort of plate, they fear that the people might grow too fond of it, and so be unwilling to let the plate be run down, if a war made it necessary, to employ it in paying their soldiers. To prevent all these inconveniences they have fallen upon an expedient which, as it agrees with their other policy, so is it very different from ours, and will scarce gain belief among us who value gold so much, and lay it up so carefully. They eat and drink out of vessels of earth or glass, which make an agreeable appearance, though formed of brittle materials; while they make their chamber-pots and close-stools of gold and silver, and that not only in their public halls but in their private houses. Of the same metals they likewise make chains and fetters for their slaves, to some of which, as a badge of infamy, they hang an earring of gold, and make others wear a chain or a coronet of the same metal . . .
Read the excerpt from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.Let there be then no coercion established in society, and the common law of gravity prevailing, the sexes will fall into their proper places. And, now that more equitable laws are forming your citizens, marriage may become more sacred: your young men may choose wives from motives of affection, and your maidens allow love to root out vanity.The father of a family will not then weaken his constitution and debase his sentiments, by visiting the harlot, nor forget, in obeying the call of appetite, the purpose for which it was implanted. And, the mother will not neglect her children to practise the arts of coquetry, when sense and modesty secure her the friendship of her husband.
Which is one way that Swift criticizes society in "A Modest Proposal"?
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Read the excerpt from "A Modest Proposal."I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar's child (in which list I reckon all cottagers, labourers, and four-fifths of the farmers) to be about two shillings per annum, rags included; and I believe no gentleman would repine to give ten shillings for the carcass of a good fat child, which, as I have said, will make four dishes of excellent nutritive meat, when he hath only some particular friend, or his own family to dine with him.
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