Literary Devices: Hyperbole and Idioms

Remember from earlier grades

In Grade 5 you saw hyperbole as a kind of humour (My backpack weighs a thousand kilograms), and you learned about imagery, similes and metaphors. You've also met idioms when learning word meanings.

In Grade 6 you'll analyze hyperbole and idioms more closely: why a writer chooses them, and whether they suit the purpose and audience.

Hook: Is it really that cold?

It was so cold this morning that my words froze in the air, and I had to bring them inside to thaw before anyone could hear them.

Did that really happen? Of course not! But you know exactly how cold it was. That's hyperbole.

The Coldest Winter in Spruce Bay (a tall tale written for this website)

The winter of the Big Freeze was so cold that the lake froze solid all the way to the bottom, and the fish had to wait till spring to finish their sentences. Grandma Odile's breath froze into icicles so long she used them as cross-country ski poles.

That was the winter my cousin Benoît said he'd shovel every driveway on our street before breakfast. Everybody laughed. But Benoît had a stubborn streak a mile wide. He was up before the sun and shovelled so fast that the snow didn't know whether it was coming or going.

By the time the rest of us rolled out of bed, Benoît was sitting at the kitchen table eating a stack of pancakes taller than the CN Tower. "Piece of cake," he said.

"You mean piece of pancake," said Grandma Odile, and we all cracked up.

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is extreme exaggeration. It's never meant to be believed. Writers use it to:

• create humour (pancakes taller than the CN Tower),
• emphasize a feeling or quality (a stubborn streak a mile wide = very stubborn),
• make a description memorable (frozen words), and
• persuade: ads use hyperbole too (the best pizza in the universe!). A critical reader knows that's not a fact.

Hyperbole is a key feature of tall tales, where characters do impossible things in a funny, boastful way.

Idioms

An idiom is a phrase whose meaning is different from its separate words. You can't figure it out word by word; you have to learn it, or use context.

• didn't know whether it was coming or going → completely confused
• rolled out of bed → got up
• Piece of cake → very easy
• cracked up → laughed hard
• break the ice → help people feel comfortable when they first meet
• skating on thin ice → doing something risky that could get you in trouble
• under the weather → feeling a bit sick

Idioms make writing sound natural, lively and friendly, the way people really talk. Some phrases are both: a stubborn streak a mile wide is an idiom-like expression that also uses hyperbole (a mile!).

Do they suit the audience?

Idioms and hyperbole work when the audience understands them. But:

• Someone learning English might take it's raining cats and dogs literally and be very confused!
• Idioms are often cultural. Every language has its own. In French, il pleut des cordes means it's raining ropes (it's pouring). In Spanish, estar en las nubes, to be in the clouds, means to be daydreaming.
• In a science report or instructions, idioms and hyperbole can cause confusion or seem unprofessional. Add a ton of baking soda is not helpful in a recipe!

So writers choose these devices based on purpose (entertain? inform?) and audience (who will read it?).