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Hyperbole
Explanation and Analysis—Shug's Pregnancies:
In Letter 50, Shug discusses her pregnancies with Celie, utilizing hyperbole to highlight the dissonance between her own priorities during childbirth and the priorities of those around her:
I had every one of my babies at home, too. Midwife come, preacher come, a bunch of the good ladies from the church. Just when I hurt so much I don’t know my own name, they think a good time to talk bout repent.
Shug describes her pain using the following hyperbolic statement: "I hurt so much I don't know my own name." It's unlikely that Shug actually forgot her name during childbirth. This is a figure of speech intended to emphasize the severity of childbirth pain—it dominates the mind and body, so much so that Shug cannot focus on anything else. In turn, the forcefulness of hyperbole emphasizes the insensitivity and lack of care granted to Shug by the preacher and church ladies. They do not care about her or her pain, only about her "sin" and subsequent "repentance." Walker uses this passage to highlight the hypocrisy she views as endemic to the Christian church, particularly in regards to women who have children out of wedlock. Shug's theoretical "salvation" is more important to these church leaders than her very real, immediate suffering.
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