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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 1
Explanation and Analysis—Flock of Angels:
Using a simile and hyperbolic language, Kidd illustrates Lily’s troubled thoughts about death and about how she deserves to be punished for killing Deborah. Lily lies awake in her bed and thinks about her mom, and about a legend she heard that bees swarm before a person dies:
Bees swarm before death. She was full of crazy ideas that I ignored, but I lay there thinking about this one, wondering if the bees had come with my death in mind. Honestly, I wasn’t that disturbed by the idea. Every one of those bees could have descended on me like a flock of angels and stung me till I died, and it wouldn’t have been the worst thing to happen. People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life.
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Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Moon Cracked:
As Lily and Rosaleen sleep in the woods the night before they reach Tiburon, Lily has a deeply unsettling nightmare. She uses visual and auditory imagery and hyperbole to show how fear follows her as she slips into unconsciousness:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I plopped onto the mossy dirt. We stared across the water at each other. In the dark she looked like a boulder shaped by five hundred years of storms. […] In my dream I was back on the peach farm […] I could see a huge, round moon in the sky. […] Next I heard a sound like ice breaking, and, looking up, I saw the moon crack apart and start to fall. I had to run for my life.
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Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Satellite Surveillance:
Even in the Boatwrights’ garden, Lily doesn’t feel completely safe from the threats of the outside world. Kidd uses an allusion and hyperbole to show how Lily’s fear rises while she sits alone near May’s wall and lets her thoughts drift toward the sky above her:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I sat on the ground with my back against the stones and my head tilted back so I could see the stars with all the spy satellites mixed in. Maybe one of them was taking my picture this very minute. They could spot me even in the dark. Nothing was safe. I would have to remember that.
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Explanation and Analysis—Ranger 7:
In this passage from Chapter 6, Kidd uses an allusion, hyperbole, and a flashback to show how Lily begins to intertwine the scientific ideas she hears in the news with her own hopes. She stays outside in the garden after August and Rosaleen leave to go to bed and lets her thoughts drift toward the sky:
Unlock with LitCharts A+August disappeared into the house, and Rosaleen headed for her cot in the honey house, but I stayed on and stared at the sky, imagining Ranger 7 blasting away for it. I knew one day I would go back into the parlor when no one was around and touch the Lady’s heart. Then I would show August the picture of my mother and see if the moon broke loose and fell out of the sky.
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Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Wooden Heart:
Although June is cordial to Lily, she’s never warm. Lily doesn’t understand why she resents her so much, and Kidd employs hyperbole to show how much Lily wishes June would soften toward her.
Unlock with LitCharts A+I’m here to tell you, if I was dying on my cot in the honey house and the only thing that could save me was June’s change of heart, I would meet my death and shoot straight to heaven. Or maybe hell. I wasn’t even sure anymore.
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Chapter 14
Explanation and Analysis—How Special:
Kidd often employs hyperbole along with verbal and situational irony to show how Lily shaped her identity around her pain as a child. In this passage, Lily reflects on her past and how she exaggerated her suffering to place herself at the center of her own story:
Unlock with LitCharts A+In a weird way I must have loved my little collection of hurts and wounds. They provided me with some real nice sympathy, with the feeling I was exceptional. I was the girl abandoned by her mother. I was the girl who kneeled on grits. What a special case I was.
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Explanation and Analysis—August the Griddle:
Summer in South Carolina is stiflingly hot. Here, the author uses both a metaphor and a simile describing temperature to link the late-summer weather to Lily’s emotional state at the end of the book. Lily describes an August day, noticing how the heat affects her body and her feelings:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The month of August had turned into a griddle where the days just lay there and sizzled. I plucked leaves off the elephant ear plants and fanned my face, sat with my bare feet submerged in the trickling water, felt breezes lift off the river surface and sweep over me, and still everything about me was stunned and stupefied by the heat, everything except my heart. It sat like an ice sculpture in the center of my chest. Nothing could touch it.
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