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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
Part 1: Esi
Explanation and Analysis—White Cannibals:
As the captives trek to Fante land, speculation veers into the realm of hyperbole. As Esi and her fellow slaves try to make sense of their terrifying new circumstances, they wonder what the British traders have in store for them:
"Who will eat us?" Esi asked.
"The white men. That is what my sister says. She says the white men buy us from these soldiers and then they cook us up like goats in soup."
Cannibalism may be a stretch. Tansi’s hypothesis—in which white men cook them “like goats in soup”—seems far-fetched and fantastical, even more so for an audience with the privilege of historical hindsight. But the hyperbole encourages the reader to connect with the past. It draws attention to the sheer terror and uncertainty experienced by those who lived in the moment. It gives the reader an opportunity to live through the past in its immediacy, to slip not so much into another person’s shoes as their shackles.
Colorful as the suggestion may be, it is not all that far off the mark, either. British slave traders don’t cook their slaves, but they do rape, suffocate, and torture them. Just pages later, Esi gets viciously violated by a drunken soldier. And if she and Tansi are spared from the stovetop, they still stew in their own feces, blood, and urine. Strangely enough, the hyperbole’s exaggeration may come closest to capturing the full scale of slavery’s inhumanity.
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