Question

Which of the following is best described as hyperbole in Swift's "A Modest Proposal?"

Answer 1

I would say that the best example of a hyperbole is C. "Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be constant customers for infants flesh . . . I compute that Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses..." This is a gross exaggeration of the whole situation: not only would the nation be relieved of the great financial (and presumably moral) burden, but Dublin won't have to worry about 20 thousand carcasses that it now has to deal with. Infants won't die from malnutrition or disease; they will be eaten, thus improving sanitary conditions in Dublin.