The Modest Proposal

I researched the Modest Proposal with details after I had heard it.Swift is considered to be one of the kings of irony in English literature. In the Modest Proposal, Swift suggests that the solution to the Irish potato famine is for people to eat their children. The irony is that it was the British essentially causing the famine by taking what potatoes were harvested away from the Irish people to intentionally starve them - the British were eating potatoes meant for the mouths of Irish little ones. Swift suggests that by eating the children's food, one might as well be eating the children themselves, as the result is the same: dead children. Of course, Swift himself was also secretly Irish, living and working in London. 
To sum up, Jonathon Swift did write A Modest Proposal as a joke, he wanted to draw attention to the critical poverty crisis in Ireland.As for a thesis try something like: Jonathon Swift wrote A Modest Propsal as a way to open the eyes of the people around him for the need to reform the welfare system of Ireland.