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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 I. The Villa
Explanation and Analysis—Literary Consumption:
In Chapter 1, as the English patient recalls his time spent in the Sahara Desert as an explorer, he recalls his deep connection to literature and history—a connection that Hana learns she shares as she sits and listens to the patient's stories. Ondaatje utilizes hyperbolic language when narrating the English patient's retelling, to highlight the intensity of the patient's literary consumption:
I have always had information like a sea in me. I am a person who if left alone in someone's home walks to the bookcase, pulls down a volume and inhales it. So history enters us. I knew maps of the sea floor, maps that depict weaknesses in the shield of the earth, charts painted on skin that contain the various routes of the Crusades.
Just as Ondaatje fills his narration of Hana's reading with hyperbole, so too he fills accounts of the English patient. Like Hana, the English patient does not literally "inhale" the volume down his throat; nor does history physically “enter us” like food or water. However, the English patient views books as tools that make up his body and mind—it is through books that he learns about the world around him. The obvious, intentional exaggeration of “inhaling” books serves to enhance the image of the English patient as a product of what he reads and engages with. Books also help to connect Hana and the patient together, for they both have a visceral, intimate, and expansive relationship with literature and history. The importance of books is a common theme in The English Patient, and this passage reflects how individual characters learn about the world around them through the written word. Additionally, in the political context of World War II, books adopt a literal and symbolic importance. Before and during the war, the Nazi Party in particular would ban and burn books in attempts to rid society of material deemed unacceptable by the fascist government. In the aftermath of war, books are not only a necessity for those in The English Patient, but perhaps a luxury.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Transported into Reading:
In Chapter 1 of The English Patient, readers discover the prominence of books, reading, and storytelling to the lives of those living at the Italian villa. To heighten Hana's sensory experience of reading, Ondaatje utilizes a hyperbole to depict the act of Hana opening a book and absorbing its story:
She entered the story knowing she would emerge from it feeling she had been immersed in the lives of others, in plots that stretched back twenty years, her body full of sentences and moments, as if waking from sleep with a heaviness caused by remembered dreams.
Ondaatje fills the passage above with figurative language towards Hana’s experience of reading. The specific hyperbole "her body full of sentences and moments" illustrates the power of literature upon Hana's mind and body. Reading is more than a mindless activity: it is a poignant, multi-sensory experience that fills Hana with curiosity. Hana is not filled with stories in a literal sense—nor does she "enter" or "emerge" from a book as one would step in and out of a door—but Ondaatje's hyperbole demonstrates the importance of literature to Hana's life, particularly as she navigates her newly war-torn environment. In this instance, the villa provides some respite from destruction, and instead she can engage herself with the stories and experiences of others. This passage also underscores the importance of books to The English Patient as a novel itself. Storytelling is a means through which characters can communicate with and relate to each other, even if they come from different nationalities and backgrounds.
Related Themes:
Chapter II. In Near Ruins
Explanation and Analysis—Miles Away:
In Chapter 2, Hana becomes accustomed to watching over the English patient while he sleeps—not only because her duties as a nurse call for such, but because Hana herself cannot sleep due to trauma from the war. Having not yet heard the English patient's backstory, Hana instead imagines his sleeping body existing somewhere other than in the villa: an observation Ondaatje illustrates by using a hyperbole:
She looks in on the English patient, whose sleeping body is probably miles away in the desert, being healed by a man who continues to dip his fingers into the bowl made with the joined soles of his feet, leaning forward, pressing the dark paste against the burned face. She imagines the weight of the hand on her own cheek.
Here, Ondaatje uses hyperbolic language to express the English patient's level of disorientation as he lies in recovery at the Italian villa. When Hana looks upon him, she feels like his “sleeping body is probably miles away," which is a metaphorical exaggeration for the sake of emphasis, or a hyperbole. Hana is already aware that the English patient consistently experiences flashbacks to his experiences in war and as a global explorer. The English patient’s body is, of course, not literally miles away in the desert, but Hana assumes that his mind travels back to his most recent memories as he sleeps, taking his sleeping form with it, in a metaphorical sense. Given that the English patient has no independent mobility when he arrives at the villa, he doesn't have much context for his present surroundings. His body is more likely to have internalized the larger horror and trauma of his burn accident—hence Hana's hyperbolic statement that his body returns to such scenes while he sleeps.
Related Themes:
