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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
Key Examples in If Beale Street Could Talk
Troubled About My Soul
Explanation and Analysis—Bigger than the World:
Following an awkward goodnight kiss, Fonny and Tish do not speak for a long time. But, when they meet again after a few weeks, Tish is still utterly in love with Fonny. As they ride the subway to Fonny's apartment in Greenwich Village, Tish looks into his face with adoration verging on hyperbole and struggles even to describe it, settling for absurd metaphors:
He was the most beautiful person I had seen in all my life.
[...] I suddenly looked up into his face. No one can describe this, I really shouldn't try. His face was bigger than the world, his eyes deeper than the sun, more vast than the desert, all that had ever happened since time began was in his face.
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Explanation and Analysis—Absolutely Misshapen:
While Sharon searches for Victoria Rogers in Puerto Rico, back in New York, Tish's pregnancy begins to wear on her. Much to Tish's dismay, both she and the baby get bigger and bigger and her body changes rapidly and unpredictably. At one point Tish bursts out in hyperbolic complaints over the shape of her body:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I do not recognize my body at all, it is becoming absolutely misshapen. I try not to look at it, because I simply do not recognize it. [...] I have never had breasts, or a behind, but I am beginning to have them now. It seems to me that I am gaining weight at the rate of about three hundred pounds an hour, and I do not dare speculate on what I will probably look like when this thing inside of me finally kicks itself out. Lord.
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