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Hyperbole
Explanation and Analysis—Digesting Nails:
In the following example of hyperbole from Chapter 6, the narrator characterizes Neeley and Francie's hunger:
There was half of a cold broiled lobster, five stone-cold fried oysters, an inch jar of caviar and a wedge of Roquefort cheese. The children didn't like the lobster and the cold oysters had no taste and the caviar seemed too salty. But they were so hungry that they ate everything on the table and digested it too, during the night. They could have digested nails had they been able to chew them.
The narrator states that Francie and Neely "could have digested nails"—an impossibility—as a means of emphasizing their starvation. Smith includes this hyperbole to give context to the act of eating as it figures in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
Francie and Neeley are so desperate for food that they will eat anything, even food children would normally rebuff. Ironically, caviar, lobster, and oysters are foods typically consumed by the wealthy. Neeley and Francie do not care that the food they eat is fancy, nor that it is cold, nor that it is far outside their gestational comfort zone. Simply the act of eating is luxury to Francie and Neeley. They will never miss out on the opportunity to partake, even if they do not enjoy what they consume.
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