Question

In this excerpt from "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift, which rhetorical technique does the author use when he discusses the plight of the labor class?

Answer 1

Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" is famous for its use of sarcasm in bringing light to serious topics such as the plight of the labor class. Let us consider this excerpt:

And as to the young labourers, they are now in almost as hopeful a condition. They cannot get work, and consequently pine away from want of nourishment, to a degree, that if at any time they are accidentally hired to common labour, they have not strength to perform it, and thus the country and themselves are happily delivered from the evils to come.

Swift is discussing the labor class by sarcastically saying that they are in a hopeful condition because they cannot get work and other negative situations which he describes as a good thing.

ANSWER: Swift uses a rhetorical technique called sarcasm.

Answer 2

And as to the young labourers, they are now in almost as hopeful a condition. They cannot get work, and consequently pine away from want of nourishment, to a degree, that if at any time they are accidentally hired to common labour, they have not strength to perform it, and thus the country and themselves are happily delivered from the evils to come.

The above excerpt uses SARCASM as the rhetorical technique.

Sarcasm is using irony to convey disgust. Irony is used when one say one thing and means another.