The option that is best described as a hyperbole in Swift's A modest proposal is this: 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...".
What is the hyperbole?
Hyperbole exaggerates for effect. In this sentence, Swift dramatically exaggerates the number of families who would consume children's flesh, 1,000, and the resulting number of infant "carcasses" 20,000. This exaggeration is impossible and serves to shock the reader into recognizing the absurdity of his proposal.
Option C, with its grotesque and impossible figures, best exemplifies the use of hyperbole in Swift's satirical proposal. It serves to expose the cruelty and inhumanity underlying the economic policies of the time.
Complete Question:
Which of the following is best described as hyperbole in Swift's "A Modest Proposal?"
A "Whereas the maintainance of an hundred thousand children, from two years old, and upwards, cannot be computed at less than ten shillings a piece per annum, the nation's stock will be thereby increased fifty thousand pounds per annum"
B "I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be urged, that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom."
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..."
D "I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional grievance"