I outlined the purpose of satire and highlighted how the techniques of irony and exaggeration achieve satire, especially in Swift's " A Modest Proposal." In order to appreciate the trenchant tone of this essay, I first focused on the writer's fictional persona, a mature ,considered educated man. We then reviewed the text to identify the problem the essay addresses-poverty and starvation- followed by the satiric solution or proposal :children should be eaten at the age of one . We then located all of the satiric justifications offered by Swift, followed by what Swift discards as the "other expedients" which are the actual solutions the author favors. We discussed why the writer includes these "other expedients" within the satire as well as the writer's intention in suggesting such a cruel solution to the poverty in Ireland in 1729.