The Joy Luck Club

by Amy Tan

The Joy Luck Club: Hyperbole 1 key example

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, Chapter 2: The Voice from the Wall
Explanation and Analysis—Next-door Killer:

Lena St. Clair’s imagination gets the better of her when she listens each night to Teresa, the neighboring girl who shares a bedroom wall. As Teresa’s mother disciplines her daughter, Lena can hardly hold back her impressions of the violence:

Then I heard scraping sounds, slamming, pushing, and shouts and then whack! whack! whack! Someone was killing. Someone was being killed. Screams and shouts, a mother had a sword high above a girl’s head and was starting to slice her life away, first a braid, then her scalp, an eyebrow, a toe, a thumb, the point of her cheek, the slant of her nose, until there was nothing left, no sounds.