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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
Section 1
Explanation and Analysis—Stories:
The following poem, taken from the beginning of Section 1, includes an example of hyperbole:
I will tell you something about stories
[he said]
They aren’t just entertainment.
Don’t be fooled.
They are all we have, you see,
all we have to fight off
illness and death.
You don’t have anything if you don’t have the stories.
Lacking context, the idea that stories are "all we have to fight off / illness and death" may seem ludicrous to readers. Surely, one would have access to things like medicine, healthy food, and shelter to stave off the "illness and death" the poem mentions. Tragically, many indigenous communities in the US (and in other countries, like Australia) were forced onto resource-poor reservations by their colonial oppressors. In the modern day, people living on reservations often lack access to healthy food and medical care, leading to higher rates of cancer and cardiovascular disease. In such dire conditions, stories and the sense of community they foster can stave off the depression, stress, and anxiety of living below the poverty line. "Death" in this passage may also refer to the death of indigenous culture/tradition/history, specifically the US government's attempts to forcibly assimilate native children into American society.
Related Themes:
Section 2
Explanation and Analysis—Far Worse:
In Section 2, Tayo's grandmother calls on Ku'oosh, a medicine man, to treat Tayo. After Ku'oosh arrives, Tayo soon uncovers a disconnect between them. He cannot speak openly with Ku'oosh about what plagues him because he doubts Ku'oosh's ability to comprehend the scale of the atrocity carried out by the American military, or indeed the extent of Tayo's own transgression. In the following passage, Silko utilizes hyperbole to characterize Tayo's feelings about his own wartime actions:
[Tayo] didn’t know how to explain what had happened. He did not know how to tell [Ku'oosh] that he had not killed any enemy or that he did not think that he had. But that he had done things far worse, and the effects were everywhere in the cloudless sky, on the dry brown hills, shrinking skin and hide taut over sharp bone.
In the passage above, Tayo utilizes hyperbolic language, claiming that his prayer to get rid of the rain is "far worse" than any killing he may or may not have done. There are several ways to interpret this hyperbole, the first being that Tayo has simply blocked out parts of his past in order to protect his mind. This type of strategic forgetting and compartmentalization is a common trauma response. Tayo may feel that his rain prayer is "far worse" because it is the thing he has chosen, selectively, to remember. Everything else may be a blur.
Secondly, while killing is obviously worse than praying for drought in the minds of many, Tayo and his fellow Laguna Pueblo view humans and the environment as equal, existing within a complex ecosystem. Surely Tayo feels that to wish death upon the earth is the same as wishing death upon another human being and is therefore equally egregious—from this perspective, it isn't actually hyperbolic to suggest that he did something "far worse" than killing when he prayed the rain away.
Related Themes:
