Quote 85
Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: […] of utterly rejecting the materials and instruments that promote foreign luxury; of curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in our women (28)
In this passage, Swift specifically addresses greed in women. Why would this be of particular interest to him?
Quote 86
For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, the flesh being of too tender a consistence to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it. (30)
The narrator alludes to the fact that children would have to be consumed rapidly, since they don't keep well. Spoiled children, anyone?
Quote 87
First, as things now stand, how they will be able to find food and raiment for one hundred thousand useless mouths and backs. (32)
A Modest Proposal is written almost entirely in two voices: Swift's and the anonymous narrator's. In this passage, the narrator imagines how his readers might react to his proposal. Can this be interpreted as a third narrative voice?