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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 2
Explanation and Analysis—Oily Smoke:
When the group of Lithuanian immigrants—including Jurgis and his family—initially arrive at Packingtown, they observe a strange and new series of weather patterns and architectural shapes. The narrator employs foreshadowing, hyperbolic language, and the sensory language of sight to create a vivid and ominous atmosphere in this scene. The group sees:
[...] half a dozen chimneys, tall as the tallest of buildings, touching the very sky—and leaping from them half a dozen columns of smoke, thick, oily, and black as night. It might have come from the center of the world, this smoke, where the fires of the ages still smolder [...] driving all before it, a perpetual explosion. It was inexhaustible; one stared, waiting to see it stop, but still the great streams rolled out. They spread in vast clouds overhead, writhing, curling; then, uniting in one giant river, they streamed away down the sky, stretching a black pall as far as the eye could reach.
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Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Icy Hands:
Jurgis's panic intensifies with his family's descent into poverty due to his workplace accident and the brutal winter. The narrator employs hyperbolic language and a simile that compares fear to a grasping hand to convey the overwhelming fear and despair that consume him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The thought of this was like an icy hand at his heart; the thought that here, in this ghastly home of all horror, he and all those who were dear to him might lie and perish of starvation and cold, and there would be no ear to hear their cry, no hand to help them!
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