The story uses hyperbole to describe Ichabod Crane’s body:
He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with […] hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weathercock, perched upon his spindle neck, to tell which way the wind blew. To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day […] one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth[.]
This passage conjures an image of an impossibly proportioned man whose arms are too long for his body and whose pointy nose spins around on his neck like a weathervane. This hyperbolic description has a variety of effects: first, it casts Ichabod as a pitiable comic figure and encourages the reader to question his viability as a suitor for Katrina. It also encourages the reader to question the legitimacy of self-described historian Diedrich Knickerbocker, whose claims about the “precision and authenticity” of his narrative clash with the outlandish proportions of Ichabod’s body. Finally, the image of “the genius of famine” provides insight into Ichabod’s character. One of Ichabod’s most notable traits is his unappeasable hunger. Because of his emaciated body, he appears to exist in a constant state of famine, and his lanky frame is a physical manifestation of his all-consuming appetite.
