Analysis Of Hyperbole By Mei Vandervelde

Mei Vandervelde, the author, develops the thematic conflict by using rhetorical devices to emphasize certain points, project the feelings of the character and to keep the reader moving through the piece in a way that they end up focusing on key, intentional points. The authors goal in this piece is to build to a specific climax. In the beginning there is a small climax, a foreshadowing of what is to come and to show the conflict between the character and the river. Vandervelde uses polysyndeton to lead the reader through it. She then goes on to use hyperbole, onomatopoeia, alliteration, anadiplosis, apposition, and antithesis throughout the piece. These are all used to bring up the intensity and make certain points stand out, such as when the …show more content…
She uses polysyndeton to lead the reader through the beginning of the conflict, the first key point, when the character is swept away by the river. It 's used to slow down the fast paced situation. The situation is slowed down because the author wants to continue the build towards the climax and wants the reader to follow along with the character, all the way to the hyperbole which is used to emphasize or exaggerate. The author is trying to convey how big and dramatic everything seems to the character and thus passing this feeling off onto the readers. Vandervelde says “an elephant sized rock” which is not the most obvious of hyperboles but I know Mei pretty well and she told me the rock was indeed not the size of an elephant. But by saying that it was it expresses how the character saw it as she rushed towards it. Although Vandervelde does say that the rock rushes towards her, but that is again intentional to emphasize its size and how turned around the character has become. When the character runs into the rock the author uses onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia is used as “splat” to describe how the character ran into the rock. It’s purpose is to draw up more of a visual for the reader because it incorporates more senses, your hearing. When you read it you don’t only picture a splat but you also hear it. The character then coughs up “two in a half fish and three fourths of the …show more content…
Isocolon: when two parts are very similar grammatically. The author uses this to state where the character is in a straightforward way “at the edge of the waterfall at the top of the falls” because the character had finally almost made it to the infamous “launch pad” and the author wanted that to be clear. Vandervelde talks of how nice the water looks and then says in parentheses “how very misleading” she does this because she wanted to quickly insert it without having to use an entire sentence to say it but still wanted the readers to know how the character feels about the river and to build the climax. Another hyperbole is used “bajillions of gallons of water.” A bajillion is not even a real number it is simply used to emphasize the amount of something. The first sentence of the third paragraph consists of two rhetorical devices Vandervelde first uses apposition “Just passed the waterfall a jagged chunk of cliff jutted out, the “launch pad,”” she used this to describe the “launch pad,” and then reveal the identity of what she was describing at the end for emphasis. In the same sentence the author uses antithesis “the lowest of the highest points” to describe the launch pad. They are in the midst of the highest cliffs but go for the lowest one; the author’s goal was to make an interesting