The main focus of Swift's satire is the British, as by the beginning of the 18th century, Britons owned 90% of the land in Ireland and soon passed legislation that actually limited the rights of the Irish in their own country. High rents charged by wealthy British landowners meant rising poverty rates and starvation among Irish farmers, and so Swift skewers the English landowners willing to figuratively "devour" the Irish by suggesting that they might view a proposition in which they literally devour the Irish acceptable, even beneficial in many ways (not the least of which was the plan's ability to lessen the number of "Papists" or Catholics: a major benefit in the eyes of the Protestant English). Swift writes, "I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children," and he insists that he could "name a country which would be glad to eat up our whole nation."
Swift also attacks (to a much lesser degree) Americans by relating a story whereby he learned from a "very knowing American of [his] acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious and nourishing and wholesome food [...]." In other words, Swift illuminates the view that Americans are as bad as the English in many ways.
Finally, Swift also satirizes the Irish themselves, as many of them tacitly accepted British rule and refused to take action against the landowners. His assertions about their willingness to profit by selling their children to be eaten, their skin turned into boots and ladies' gloves, shows their complacency with British rule in quite a negative light. For if the parents, in the above quote, are willing to allow themselves to be figuratively "devoured," what would prevent them from allowed their children to be literally so?
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