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"

Answer 1

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...

Step-by-step explanation:

correct on odyssey

Answer 2

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.