With a heart and a half
With a heart and a half
In Brief
Figure of speech. On the street outside the
newspaper offices, Myles Crawford turns down J. J. O'Molloy's
request for a loan by pleading poverty: "Sorry, Jack. You must
take the will for the deed. With a heart and a half if I could
raise the wind anyhow." The rhetorical term for such
exaggerations is hyperbole.
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Hyperbole (hye-PER-bo-lee, from Greek hyper- = over +
bollein = to throw) is a figurative expression that
overshoots the mark, often going beyond what is literally
possible. The author of the Ad Herennium says that
"Hyperbole is a manner of speech exaggerating the truth,
whether for the sake of magnifying or minifying something.
This is used independently, or with comparison." The second
sentence refers to the fact that hyperbole often uses metaphor
or other kinds of comparison to achieve its impressions of
muchness or not-muchness. In the two examples illustrated
here, the first ("I have a million things to do today") is
used "independently," while the second ("on top of the world")
employs a metaphorical comparison between location and state
of mind.
Hyperbole is typically used for emphasis. Saying that
something weighs a ton, or that someone is as old as the
hills, or that I could eat a horse, or that you are a
pea-brain, simply intensifies whatever quality is involved,
but it does so far more effectively than saying "very." Myles
Crawford's "a heart and a half" emphasizes how eager he
would be to help if only he could. A similar hyperbolic
expression from American political history suggests how false
the protest probably is. When George McGovern's
vice-presidential running mate Thomas Eagleton disclosed that
he had a history of clinical depression, McGovern declared
that he was "1,000% behind Tom Eagleton, and I have no
intention of dropping him from the ticket." Eagleton was gone
weeks later.
Source: www.thoughtco.com.