English Majors??? Anyone??? Help...

I read a story called "A Modest Proposal" of a guy proposing his country have "breeders" and they would sell their one year old children to rich people as food. He said it would solve the orphan problem, makes jobs for poor men and women, and boost the economy. It made sense, but who would do that? At the end he dared politicians to come up with a better proposal to solve ALL those problems.

So I have to write a "Modest Proposal" Basically propose something to fix an issue (Ex. Global Warming, Economy, stuff like that) that makes sense, but is so ridiculous that no one would do it. All the while pointing out that something needs to be done to fix that issue.

Any ideas???

I would go to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's 1984, or Margaret Atwood's The Handmaiden's Tale. Reading even the sparknotes for these would give you practically unlimited ideas, and you could easily make any one of them your own.

Good luck :)

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Originally Posted by musicalKeyes

I would go to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's 1984, or Margaret Atwood's The Handmaiden's Tale. Reading even the sparknotes for these would give you practically unlimited ideas, and you could easily make any one of them your own.

Good luck :)

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Thanks. :)

Can I read the sparknotes in a short time??? I'm limited on time. I work 12 hour shifts and my paper is due next wed. LoL.

Sparknotes is a a lifesaver sometimes. :bow:

Sure is. Here are the themes, motifs, and symbols pages for each, reading through these will probably give you some really good ideas:

The Handmaid's Tale
1984
Brave New World

The Summary & Analysis parts of each would probably be helpful too. :)

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Originally Posted by musicalKeyes

Sure is. Here are the themes, motifs, and symbols pages for each, reading through these will probably give you some really good ideas:

The Handmaid's Tale
1984
Brave New World

The Summary & Analysis parts of each would probably be helpful too. :)

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Thanks. :D
I'm gonna start reading those tomorrow. :) For now it's off to get some dinner then off to get some sleep.
Thanks again.

Fun assignment.

Too bad nothing trumps eating babies.

Look at bits and pieces of Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Lots of stuff in there. Good luck!

Eliminate money. Take us back to a barter system. Fix our oil addiction by outlawing the use of any product made from crude oil. There are tons of ideas!

I don't know that I would go around co-opting famous authors' ideas. It sounds like your teacher wants you to come up with an original idea.

Ya, just pick anything that is a negative or positive in society and then make the reward or punishment crazy for it.
Any criminal of any kind owes the city 1000 hours of hard labor. Deterrent for crime, free labor.
Tax people based on obesity.
Force people to take IQ tests, then make them work in the most mentally demanding jobs.
Ban smoking and drinking!
There are lots of ideas. Pick the one that is easiest for you to write about.
How long does it need to be?

How about a reptile theme idea. Large cities are over run with roaches and rodents, so come up with a theme where everyone has to keep a pet retic to feed the rats to and tokay geko's running around the house for the roaches.

That was written by Jonathan Swift, and IMO is the best pieces of literature ever written. It's a satire; therefore, supposed to be funny, but at the same time it does make sense.

No lie, "A Modest Proposal" is one of my all time favorite reads. I like to curl up on a couch, light a fire, drink some hot chocolate, and read it all night.

Perfect evening.

Problem: High crime rate and prison overcrowding...

Solution: You break the law, you lose your rights. Take away prisoner luxuries. Give new meaning to hard time and hard labor. Bring back cruel and unusual punishment. Implement things like caning and public executions.


The other day I heard a story on the news where North Carolina inmates were unhappy because, as part of State budget cuts, there NetFlix account had been cancelled...:rage:

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Originally Posted by mainbutter

Fun assignment.

Too bad nothing trumps eating babies.

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LoL. Yeah it's a little hard coming up with an idea better than that.

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Originally Posted by unspecified42

Eliminate money. Take us back to a barter system. Fix our oil addiction by outlawing the use of any product made from crude oil. There are tons of ideas!

I don't know that I would go around co-opting famous authors' ideas. It sounds like your teacher wants you to come up with an original idea.

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He does want us to be original. He's always telling us to think out of the box and to be "different".

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Originally Posted by mr. s

Ya, just pick anything that is a negative or positive in society and then make the reward or punishment crazy for it.
Any criminal of any kind owes the city 1000 hours of hard labor. Deterrent for crime, free labor.
Tax people based on obesity.
Force people to take IQ tests, then make them work in the most mentally demanding jobs.
Ban smoking and drinking!
There are lots of ideas. Pick the one that is easiest for you to write about.
How long does it need to be?

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It just needs to be 3 pages long as it's only English 105. I'm not what you would call a great writer or even a good one LoL, so I've been having some trouble coming up with ideas. I like the criminal one and the obesity one. Thanks for the great ideas. :)

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Originally Posted by Wh00h0069

That was written by Jonathan Swift, and IMO is the best pieces of literature ever written. It's a satire; therefore, supposed to be funny, but at the same time it does make sense.

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I read it while I was at work and I was okay when I read it the first time because I didn't really process it. Then I went back and re-read it and I couldn't believe it. The discussion in class about it was... Interesting.

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Originally Posted by Samuel

No lie, "A Modest Proposal" is one of my all time favorite reads. I like to curl up on a couch, light a fire, drink some hot chocolate, and read it all night.

Perfect evening.

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I don't know if I would call that a perfect evening for myself. :) But it is a good yet interesting read.

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Originally Posted by Vypyrz

Problem: High crime rate and prison overcrowding...

Solution: You break the law, you lose your rights. Take away prisoner luxuries. Give new meaning to hard time and hard labor. Bring back cruel and unusual punishment. Implement things like caning and public executions.


The other day I heard a story on the news where North Carolina inmates were unhappy because, as part of State budget cuts, there NetFlix account had been cancelled...:rage:

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I like the criminal idea. I'm thinking about doing it on something along those lines. :)

And that's just ridiculous. They don't deserve NetFlix, they're criminals. What is this world coming to. :confused:

I just read that in my AP english class.. its a satire and he is not being serious, but at the same time adressing a common problem in his society, eventhough it is a little extreme, but it proves a point (hyperbole)