In the final paragraphs of the story, the narrator captures Little Chandler’s reaction to his infant son’s cries, using a pair of hyperboles in the process:
It was useless. He couldn’t read. He couldn’t do anything. The wailing of the child pierced the drum of his ear. It was useless, useless! He was a prisoner for life. His arms trembled with anger and suddenly bending to the child’s face he shouted:
– Stop!
The first hyperbole here—“The wailing of the child pierced the drum of his ear”—uses exaggeration in order to communicate Little Chandler’s intense negative reaction to his son’s crying. Are the child’s bawls really this loud, or is Little Chandler experiencing them as “piercing” because of his frustration with his mundane life as a father? Joyce suggests that it is likely a combination of both.
The second hyperbole—“He was a prisoner for life”—makes a clear connection between the needy, shrieking baby in Little Chandler’s arm and his feeling of being confined in a boring life (while people like Gallaher are out there living glamorous, if not somewhat scandalous, lives). Overall, Joyce’s exaggerated language helps readers understand that Little Chandler ends the story without a sense of agency.
