This assignment, usually after discussing Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” serves to demonstrate the student’s understanding of irony and exaggeration to make an argument. When the student understands the “modest” adjective, he/she is then requested to invent a “modest” (read “preposterous”) idea to solve another problem, a suggestion that, by its outrageousness, illuminates the irony of the dilemma but which superficially can be argued. For example, suppose we were to suggest that only cripples and the...
This assignment, usually after discussing Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” serves to demonstrate the student’s understanding of irony and exaggeration to make an argument. When the student understands the “modest” adjective, he/she is then requested to invent a “modest” (read “preposterous”) idea to solve another problem, a suggestion that, by its outrageousness, illuminates the irony of the dilemma but which superficially can be argued. For example, suppose we were to suggest that only cripples and the sick should fight in a war, because their loss would be less than losing a healthy person. How about suggesting that college students should never read the classic Iliad, because it puts them in a combative, belligerent, defensive mood toward their professors? Or what if ladies were required to wear high heels if they wanted gender equality to play professional sports? See, preposterous “solutions” to social problems highlight the flaws in our thinking, in our approach to solving problems. What if students were required to only plagiarize their homework, so they would learn how to research their topics?
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