Hyperbole

Hyperbole

exaaaaaaaaggeration

Multiple Choice

Read the following passage.

Kwame loves reading. Every time he opens a new book, it's like a window into a new world. From reading, he has learned about pirates, NASA engineers and the Civil War, and that's just in the last month. His current book is a mystery. He can't wait to find out what happens next.

Which detail from the passage is an example of figurative language?

• "Kwame loves reading."

• "His current book is a mystery."

• "...it's like a window into a new world"

• "He has learned about pirates, NASA engineers and the Civil War…"

Definition

hyperbole-noun

-exaggeration or overstatement, not meant to be taken literally.

Example: "He was stronger than an ox" is an example of hyperbole because it is an obvious exaggeration.

Synonyms: exaggeration, overstatement

Antonyms: understatement

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is an example of hyperbole?

• He is so lazy that he bought paper plates so that he'd never have to wash dishes. He is a couch potato.

• He is the laziest man in the entire universe.

• He is as lazy as a sloth.

• He is a couch potato.

Humor 😂

Writers can use hyperbole to add humor or drama to their work. Hyperbole can be funny! Here's an example from the hip-hop artist Cassidy:

"If you cats wore my chain for a month you'd be hunchback." This funny exaggeration makes a point about how big Cassidy's chain is; it wouldn't literally make a person a hunchback.

Drama

Hyperbole can also add drama.

Here's an example from the novel Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery:

"I could never express all my sorrow, no not if I used up a whole dictionary. I deserve to be punished and cast out by respectable people forever." The narrator is exaggerating for dramatic effect to convey how much sorrow she feels.

Multiple Choice

Read the following passage.

It was a cold day. We had to put on boots and coats and scarves to go outside.

Which of the following revisions uses hyperbole to add humor?

• Icicles hung like daggers from the rooftops, and we pulled our scarves tight and walked quickly down the street.

• The snow was a white blanket on the front lawn, and the bare tree branches snapped under the frozen weight.

• It was so cold that even a polar bear would have needed to wear a coat and scarf to go outside.

• It was one of the coldest days of that winter, and the cold wind kept blowing through the night.

Emphasis!

Writers can also use hyperbole to emphasize a point.

If a character is really hungry, an author could write, "She was very hungry." But that might not really convey just how hungry the character is. An author could use exaggeration to emphasize the feeling by writing, "She was so hungry, she could eat a horse." It might not literally be true, but the character's hunger becomes more clear, and more interesting!

Multiple Choice

Read the following passage.

When Janice forgot her speech in front of the whole class, she was embarrassed.

Which of the following revisions uses hyperbole to emphasize Janice's embarrassment?

• When Janice forgot her speech in front of the whole class, she was so embarrassed she wanted to crawl into a dark cave for a million years.

• When Janice forgot her speech in front of the whole class, she cried silently at her desk for a few minutes out of embarrassment.

• When Janice forgot her speech in front of the whole class, her eyes got teary and her voice shook.

• When Janice forgot her speech in front of the whole class, her face turned almost as red as a tomato.

👀

You can find hyperbole everywhere.

-It's in advertisements that tell you something is "the best in the world."

-It's in tabloids that tell you something is the "biggest scandal ever."

-It's in literature, especially in tall tales. Tall tales are American folk tales that involve fanciful or greatly exaggerated plot elements. The heroes of these stories are usually larger than life, like Paul Bunyan. Paul Bunyan is said to have been so big that he wore wagon wheels for buttons, and his footprints became lakes. Other tall tale heroes have superhuman abilities. John Henry is said to have worked faster than a locomotive. The plots of these stories are funny and impossible, like the story of Pecos Bill who lassoed a tornado and rode it like a horse.

Multiple Choice

Read the following passage from The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan by W. B. Laughead.

They could never keep Babe more than one night at a camp for he would eat in one day all the feed one crew could tote to camp in a year. For a snack between meals he would eat fifty bales of hay, wire and all, and six men with picks were kept busy picking the wire out of his teeth.

What is the purpose of hyperbole in this passage?

• to add urgency and drama to the story

• to convey true details about Babe the Big Blue Ox

• to make a more entertaining story through humorous exaggeration

• to show the reader that Babe the Big Blue Ox really was the hungriest ox in the world