The satire A Modest Proposal is also about homelessness. The difference in the storylines is that a Modest Proposal portrays a different view on homelessness. The narrator refers to homeless children as useless and a nuisance stopping their mothers from working.
There are significant differences between the two texts. Swindells wrote the thriller in 1993 because he himself had experienced living rough in the North of London. He was horrified by the by the conditions homeless people endured, and so he decided to publicise this matter
The above quote clearly shows the beliefs and feelings of Swindells. He wanted to support the homeless and he believed they should not be considered as cast offs. In this period, Swindells was at war with the government, as they didn’t seem to care about homelessness.
Swift was heavily involved in politics and religion and at the age of 27 he became a clergyman and wrote about politics and religion. He seriously believed that the Catholics were being treated unfairly and this partly led to him writing A Modest Proposal.
A similarity between the two texts, are both were written to criticise government policy on homelessness. Swindells however partly wrote the book to influence youths about homelessness.
Swift also wrote A Modest Proposal to criticise government policy as he had concerns about the quality of life the Catholics were living.
Swindells thriller users the psychopathic character of Shelter to great effect. Shelter builds up suspense and tension throughout the book, making the reader guess his next move or victim. The quote below typifies Shelter at his aggressive best, as he also doesn’t like homeless youngsters
The suspense is intensified every time Shelter comes onto the scene. Link finds that all the people around him are disappearing. He becomes suspicious and starts to track down Shelter. The story reaches its climax when both Link and Shelter clash. Link is saves just in time from the grasp of Shelter, by the aid of his new friend and the police. Swindells mainly wrote the story on homelessness but Shelter is a parallel character to Link in the story but he is dangerous and predatory, making it full of tension and suspense.
Swifts Modest Proposal is a satire, which is written in a voice of an upper class person, suggests ridiculous ideas to get rid of homeless children. Although these points are ridiculous, they are logical arguments which make them sound serious if they are taken under consideration. He wanted to cause outrage and offend the Protestants as they were treating the Catholics badly.
Swindells on the other hand does the same by shocking readers through having one of the characters break the law and commit murder
Shelter’s aim is simple get rid of all homeless youngsters by killing them, choosing victims at random and claiming that they are better off dead.
Links character is exposed to danger, as his life is full of danger. Once he has tracked down Shelter’s home he decides to investigate the place, as he is drawn in gently by Shelter. This point portrays how easy it is to be lured into a dangerous person’s home without realising the dangers. Another danger is Shelter, obviously very dangerous, but he looks normal to the members of the public. Shelter is an ex-army officer. However, inside he is unbalanced and insane. This emphasises the message that nobody knows who he is. Below is a typical quote, which shows his insanity
He explains how he brutally kills the homeless and disposers of their bodies.
Swindells throughout the story tries to show how dangerous it is for the homeless. An added danger is that characters like Shelter are lurking about all the time and they are hard to spot.
Through Link, Swindells shows everything about the life of the homeless youth, e.g. sleeping conditions eating conditions living conditions etc. The appalling conditions are revealed by Link in this quote
Swifts ridiculous views are shown right from the start. As in the first paragraph, he shocks readers by saying how good a child will be for killing and then making then into food to sell
Swift did not believe in abortions, as he was a catholic. He revealed that many people resorted to abortions because they could not afford to look after their children.
The styles of both texts are very different Swindell’s story is written from a first person’s view. It is as if you are actually talking to Link. He wanted to change views of the public. He didn’t want the public to think that the homeless were just ‘lazy dossers’
A Modest Proposal uses the ‘I’ often, but this is not Swift, it is an upper class person talking. Swift’s Proposal at the time was very effective as the ridiculous views he gave reached out to people and make them sit up and take notice because it is a very clever satire.