The Modest Proposal by Janathan Swift and Top of the food chain by T. Coraghessan Boyle are short stories written to make the reader realize how humans do absurd things which as a result have unexpected consequences. The following paragraphs will discuss how irony is used in both stories.
In the Modest proposal, the author speaks of a "modest proposal," to end the cruelty to the Irish from the English. The story is ironic because it is not modest but gruesome and disgusting. He proposes that people should start eating children on a daily basis. …