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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—Another On The Way:
The hyperbolic language Frank’s aunts Delia and Philomena use to describe Angela’s poverty in New York reveals their harsh, dismissive attitude toward Angela’s struggles. This comes to the fore when they write to Angela’s mother about their frustration with Angela’s repeated pregnancies, which they attribute to Malachy Sr.'s background as a Northern Irishman:
The minute she loses one child there is another one on the way. We don't know how she does it. She's married four years, five children and another on the way. That shows you what can happen when you marry someone from the North for they have no control over themselves up there a bunch of Protestants that they are.
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Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Did His Bit:
McCourt uses idiom and hyperbole to emphasize the frustration and bitterness felt by Irish veterans like Malachy Sr. over the meager pensions the IRA offers. This dialogue between Malachy Sr. and a fellow veteran takes place in an IRA office in Dublin, where they lament the meager rewards the Irish Free State offers for the sacrifices they made:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The man tells Dad, I can see you’re a man that did his bit. Dad says, Och, I did my bit, and the man says, I did me bit, too, and what did it get me but one eye less and a pension that wouldn’t feed a canary.
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Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Champion Pint Drinker:
Frank describes his friend Mikey’s father, Peter, as a “great champion” who wins drinking contests at pubs, and his mother as someone who is always in and out of mental institutions. In doing so, the narrator uses situational irony and hyperbole to describe the tragicomic dysfunction in Mikey’s family:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Mikey’s father, Peter, is a great champion. He wins bets in the pubs by drinking more pints than anyone. [...] He’s such a champion they could chop off his fingers and he’d carry on regardless. Nora Molloy is often carted off to the lunatic asylum demented with worry over her hungry famishing family. [...] It’s well known that all the lunatics in the asylum have to be dragged in but she’s the only one that has to be dragged out, back to her five children and the champion of all pint drinkers.
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Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—The World to Ourselves:
In this passage, McCourt uses hyperbole and pathos to convey Frank’s conflicted feelings for his father, Malachy Sr., despite his father’s frequent failures. Frank reflects on the early mornings he shares with his father, when Malachy Sr. is mostly still sober and attentive. He says he cannot hate him, because
Unlock with LitCharts A+How can I do that when I’m up with him early every morning with the whole world asleep? He lights the fire and makes the tea and sings to himself or reads the paper to me in a whisper that won’t wake up the rest of the family. [...] In the morning we have the world to ourselves and he never tells me I should die for Ireland.
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Chapter 13
Explanation and Analysis—Seashell Ears:
Frank describes his apprehension upon seeing that his regular priest—an ancient man whom he feels comfortable confessing almost anything to because he’s basically deaf—has been replaced by a younger man. He uses a simile to describe how this new confessor’s fully functional ears make him feel:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Then one day the little panel in the confession box slides back and it’s not my man at all, it’s a young priest with a big ear like a seashell. He’ll surely hear everything.
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