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Definition of Hyperbole
Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which a writer or speaker exaggerates for the sake of emphasis. Hyperbolic statements are usually quite obvious exaggerations intended to emphasize a point... read full definition
Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which a writer or speaker exaggerates for the sake of emphasis. Hyperbolic statements are usually quite obvious exaggerations... read full definition
Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which a writer or speaker exaggerates for the sake of emphasis. Hyperbolic statements... read full definition
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Giants of the Past:
At the beginning of the novel, Gene is thinking about how his perspective on things and people has changed since his childhood. He uses hyperbole as he compares the "giants" of his childhood to how he sees his teachers and family members as an adult:
[T]hose men, the giants of your childhood, whom you encounter years later and find that they are not merely smaller in relation to your growth, but that they are absolutely smaller, shrunken by age…[for] the old giants have become pigmies while you were looking the other way.
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Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Brain Explosions:
Because Gene worries so much that Finny is his social and moral superior, he’s astonished when he realizes the jealousy between them might go both ways. Knowles uses hyperbole and similes to convey Gene's shock and realization when, in Chapter 4, Finny reveals he’d be jealous if Gene became Head Boy:
Unlock with LitCharts A+In front of my eyes the trigonometry textbook blurred into a jumble. I couldn’t see. My brain exploded. He minded, despised the possibility that I might be the head of the school. There was a swift chain of explosions in my brain, one certainty after another blasted—up like a detonation went the idea of any best friend, up went affection and partnership and sticking by someone and relying on someone absolutely [...]
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Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Ocean Squall:
In Chapter 6, Gene encounters a figure approaching him on one of the Devon School's paths and instantly feels afraid. In this passage, Knowles uses a simile and hyperbole to create an atmosphere of unease:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Someone was coming toward me along the bent, broken lane which led to the dormitory, a lane out of old London, ancient houses on either side leaning as though soon to tumble into it, cobblestones heaving underfoot like a bricked-over ocean squall—a figure of great height advanced down them toward me.
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Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—Grey and Gurgling:
While the Devon School is idyllic in summer, in the harsh New England winters its rural remoteness make it feel like a prison between autumn and spring. In Chapter 9, as Gene describes this feeling of entrapment and the change in the school’s atmosphere after Leper enlists, he employs imagery, a metaphor, and hyperbole:
Unlock with LitCharts A+And these Saturdays are worst in the late winter when the snow has lost its novelty and its shine, and the school seems to have been reduced to only a network of drains. During the brief thaw in the early afternoon there is a dismal gurgling of dirty water seeping down pipes and along gutters [...] Shrubbery loses its bright snow headgear and stands bare and frail, too undernourished to hide the drains it was intended to hide.
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