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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 2: The Desert
Explanation and Analysis—Dad’s Tall Tales:
When Dad tells his children stories about himself, he tends to use hyperbole:
Dad always fought harder, flew faster, and gambled smarter than everyone else in his stories. […] Dad taught us the secrets of his heroics—he showed us how to straddle a wild dog and break his neck, and where to hit a man in the throat so you could kill him with one powerful jab. But he assured us that […] anyone who so much as laid a finger on any of Rex Walls’s children was going to get their butts kicked so hard that you could read Dad’s shoe size on their ass cheeks.
Hyperbole elevates Dad’s heroism. He casts himself as a mythic figure who can protect the weak and defeat his enemies “with one powerful jab”—a clear exaggeration of the truth. Although enchanting to his young children, Dad’s hyperbolic stories also set them up for disappointment; his real-life shortcomings only seem more tragic in comparison to the grand vision of himself he’s planted in their minds.
In this way, hyperbole shows how people create idealistic narratives about themselves, their pasts, and their futures. These narratives can either be proven false, like the never-built Glass Castle, or pursued and made real, like Jeannette and Lori’s escape to New York City.
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