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Hyperbole
Explanation and Analysis—Surveying the Land:
Keyes uses hyperbole and visual imagery in this passage to capture Charlie’s awareness that his intelligence stands at a dangerous turning point. Charlie describes feeling that everything around him is holding still as he waits for the coming change to arrive.
Everything around me is waiting. I dream of being alone on the top of a mountain, surveying the land around me, greens and yellows—and the sun directly above, pressing my shadow into a tight ball around my legs. As the sun drops into the afternoon sky, the shadow undrapes itself and stretches out toward the horizon, long and thin, and far behind me. . .
Charlie’s voice is full of hyperbole here, beginning with the phrase “everything around me is waiting.” His words create a self-important sense that the entire world is also waiting in suspense to see what will happen to him. The sun “pressing [his] shadow into a tight ball” also overstates the physical sensation of warmth he feels in the dream. The pressure of everything around him matches the pressure Charlie feels at this peak in his intelligence after the operation. He feels he's the most intelligent being in the world.
The author also relies on visual imagery here to turn Charlie’s emotional landscape into a physical one. Charlie's dream of being alone on the top of a mountain, with “greens and yellows” stretching out below, draws a clear picture of an isolated, godlike Charlie observing everything from a distance. He stands apart from the world. His own shadow, which “undrapes itself and stretches out toward the horizon,” also lets the reader feel Charlie’s sense of an ending approaching. He’s concerned—correctly—that his time on the top of the mountain will not last forever and is nervous for the shadows below.
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