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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
Hyperbole
Explanation and Analysis—Since Nine Years Old:
After eating a large dinner, the narrator, his wife, and Robert retire to the living room, conversing together and smoking marijuana. The narrator uses a hyperbole in this scene when describing Robert’s ease with smoking, as seen in the following passage:
I said, “Coming at you,” and I put the number between his fingers. He inhaled, held the smoke, and then let it go. It was like he’d been doing it since he was nine years old.
When the narrator says, in reference to Robert’s smoking, that “[i]t was like he’d been doing it since he was nine years old,” the narrator is being hyperbolic. In other words, he is intentionally using exaggerated language in order to communicate to readers that he is surprised and impressed by Robert’s fluidity with smoking, especially given that this is his first time ever doing it (as Robert revealed earlier in the scene).
This is one of the many moments in the story when Robert surprises the narrator, proving to be more capable than the narrator expected him, as a blind man, to be. As the narrator says early in the story (before meeting Robert), his only exposure to blind people was via movies in which blind people “moved slowly and never laughed." This hyperbole communicates the narrator’s continued surprise over how capable (and likable) Robert is.
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