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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
Part II: Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis—Soviet Propaganda:
In the following example of hyperbole from Chapter 16, Khala Rangmaal describes the Soviet Union to her students, Laila among them:
[Khala Rangmaal] said that the Soviet Union was the best nation in the world, along with Afghanistan. It was kind to its workers, and its people were all equal. Everyone in the Soviet Union was happy and friendly, unlike America, where crime made people afraid to leave their homes. And everyone in Afghanistan would be happy too, she said, once the antiprogressives, the backward bandits, were defeated.
Khala Rangmaal includes examples of hyperbole in her characterization of the Soviet Union, declaring that "everyone in the [country] was happy and friendly." This statement is obvious propaganda—a conciliatory sentiment, meant to assure young people about the legitimacy and efficacy of Soviet interference in Afghani politics.
Through Khala Rangmaal's propagandizing, the narrator satirizes foreign intervention in Afghanistan. During the 1970s and 1980s, both the U.S. and the Soviet Union invested heavily in global imperialism, attempting to influence so-called developing countries into adopting either capitalism (U.S.) or communism (Soviet Union) as a primary political ethos. This interference catalyzed political instability in countries like Afghanistan, leaving Afghani people to pick up the pieces of their government once the Americans and Soviets withdrew. The narrator critiques this pattern of interference and neglect.
