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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—Dee’s Dress:
When Dee steps out of the car after arriving home for a visit, the first thing Mama (the narrator) notices is her attire. In the following passage, Mama uses a series of hyperboles to communicate her shock at what Dee is wearing:
Dee next. A dress down to the ground, in this hot weather. A dress so loud it hurts my eyes. There are yellows and oranges enough to throw back the light of the sun. I feel my whole face warming from the heat waves it throws out.
Mama uses hyperbolic language when describing how Dee’s dress is “so loud it hurts [her] eyes,” how its bright yellow and orange colors “throw back the light of the sun,” and how her face gets warm “from the heat waves it throws out.” Mama does not mean any of this literally but uses exaggerated language to help readers understand just how brightly colored Dee’s dress is, and how gaudy and over-the-top she finds it to be.
This moment is one of many in which Mama disapproves of—or is confused by—Dee’s attempts at embracing African culture. While Dee likely sees herself as embracing her Blackness by connecting to her ancestral roots (these types of bright floor-length dresses are common in different regions in Africa), Mama, who is an uneducated working-class Black woman in the rural South, has not been exposed to these ideas and is therefore understandably confused. Here, Walker is raising awareness about the gap between people at the forefront of the Black nationalist and Black Power movements and ordinary Black people like Mama.
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