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Hyperbole
Explanation and Analysis—Cathedrals:
As Eric and Yves fall deeper in love, Baldwin uses hyperbole and a simile to express the barrage of feelings Eric experiences. Lying in bed with Yves, Eric thinks:
Then, in the violent moonlight, naked, he slowly pulled the covers away from Yves. They watched each other and he stared at Yves’ body for a long time before Yves lifted up his arms, with that same sad, cryptic smile, and kissed him. Eric felt beneath his fingers Yves’ slowly stirring, stiffening sex. This sex dominated the long landscape of his life as the cathedral towers dominated the plains.
In this passage, Eric and Yves have just gotten into bed together, and Eric is trying to make sense of the rush of feelings he's experiencing. The moonlight, which streams in through the window and illuminates every centimeter of the scene, is so bright that it seems "violent," almost as though it had a malicious will of its own. Because Eric is nervous about what's about to happen, the lack of darkness to hide in feels aggressive and exciting. He only has his brief and little-discussed encounter with LeRoy to compare this moment with Yves to.
When he reaches down and feels Yves's penis, the narrator describes it as "dominating" the "landscape" of his life, in the same way that the cathedral towers of the town they are staying in "dominate" the flat plains around them. With Yves, Eric feels something he has never felt before. The hyperbole in this simile emphasizes this, as Yves's presence—and the sexual chemistry between them—seem bigger and more important than anything else Eric has experienced. Of course, Yves's erection is not really the size of a cathedral, but to Eric it feels almost as sacred and important.
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