Forms of appeal

The message in Jonathan Swift's essay is obviously absurd in its irony, and thus you could argue that the entire essay is one big appeal to pathos, as to move the law makers and educated public to do something about the poverty in Ireland. However, its ironic absurdity aside, the essay do make use of the three main forms of appeal to make his arguments more convincing and more easily accepted by the receivers as if it was a normal, credible argument. 

Pathos

Because Jonathan Swift makes the narrator of the essay despicable for the readers to pity the Irish, and he explores a very sensitive topic (the circumstances of poor children), implies that the underlying form of appeal is pathos. By presenting an absurd and immoral solution to the problem of poverty, the author aims at instilling feelings of rage and pity. Readers will be offended and shocked by th...