Question

Read the excerpt below and answer the question. 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 Carcases... This statement is best described as ________________. Select all that apply. literal sincere hyperbolic ironic

Answer 1

• Hyperbolic
• Ironic

Answer 2

The mentioned statement from Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal can best be described as hyperbolic and ironic. It is hyperbolic in the sense that buying infant flesh (and as implied, eating them) is an over exaggerated solution to the problem being discussed. It is also ironic because Swift is proposing to eat the infants so that they won't have to die of malnutrition and diseases.