Final answer:
Jonathan Swift hoped to shock and provoke critical reflection in Ireland by satirically suggesting that the poor sell their children as food to address poverty, thus highlighting serious socio-economic issues and engaging readers in meaningful debate.
Step-by-step explanation:
By publishing "A Modest Proposal", Jonathan Swift may have hoped to induce a sense of shock and provoke critical reflection among the people of Ireland. This work, a satirical pamphlet, suggests the outrageous idea of poor Irish families selling their children as food to the rich as a way to alleviate poverty. The satire is so extreme that it serves to highlight the desperation of the Irish situation, thereby engaging readers in debate regarding the dire socio-economic conditions of the time.
The text achieves this by meeting and challenging conventional expectations in rhetorically effective ways, thus showing emerging evidence of the writer's intent to foster change. Through his exaggerated and ironic narrative, Swift allows readers to reflect on the real issues in a more profound way, moving beyond apathy to a critical discourse on the political, economic, and social struggles faced by Ireland during his lifetime.