Rhetorical Devices Analysis

Irony and Use of Hyperbole.

Rosa Chavez Pd.4
Honors ELA Literature

Revenge is often like biting a dog because the dog bit you. Revenge can come
in many shapes and forms. It can come brutally with a good or bad intention or just

naturally like karma. In both of the pieces of literature that I choose, revenge is an
escape that liberates people of all the abuse and insecurities they have. In the short
story Blacaman the Good, Vendor of Miracles and The Two Kings and the Two
Labyrinths, the use irony and hyperbole affects the overall tone by creating a twisted
and depressing theme.
In the short story, Blacaman the Good, Vendor of Miracles the rhetorical device
being used is irony. When the assistant finally gets a chance to get back at his cruel
master he takes advantage of it in the best way possible. The narrator states Here lies
Blacaman The Dead, badly called the bad, deceiver of marines and victim of science,
and when those honors were sufficient for me to do justice to his virtues, I began to get
my revenge for his infamy, and then I revived him inside the armored tomb and left him
there rolling about in horror (Garcia Marquez 282). The assistant has decided that
since his master abused him that he could do the same. The assistant ends up having
these real magical powers and he is able to get back at the hoax Blacaman.
In the short story The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths the rhetoric device of
irony is being used when the author states,Then he returned to Arabia with his captains
and his wardens and he wreaked such havoc upon the kingdoms of Babylonia, and with
such great blessing by fortune that he brought low its castles, crushed its people, and
took the king of Babylonia himself captive. He tied him atop a swift-footed camel and led
him into the desert (Luis Borges). Irony is being used here because what was expected
of the King of Arabia was the complete opposite. The King of Arabia was thought to
have returned to his land to live normally. The King of Babylonia comes to his territory to
enter his labyrinth however he does not do that, He rose havoc (hell) on the people of

Babylonia and took their king as well to leave him abandoned in the middle of the
desert, where he died of hunger and thirst (Borges Luis). The King of Arabia gets back
at The King of Babylonia in a cruel way. This is all very ironic considering how he gets
back at him. It is expected that he will have a labyrinth that is comparable to the kind of
Babylonias. However, he has no tricks or elaborate labyrinth.
The irony in these two stories creates a dark tone.The dark tone is rather
different and more based on revenge. In both stories the person that was humiliated or
oppressed by another person of a higher power finally gets the revenge they have been
seeking. For the assistant in Blacaman the Good, Vendor of miracles, revenge is
getting at the master by reviving him inside his own tomb. This sinister action creates a
dark tone that the reader comes to realize at the end of the book. Its a twisted way to
get back at someone. In the story The Two Kings and Two Labyrinths the King of
Arabia forces The King of Babylonia to go into his Labyrinth and lets him die there. The
King of Arabia did not have a labyrinth that was comparable to the King of Babylonia
since it was just a simple desert. However when the author goes into detail with how
this ironic event does cause someone to die of hunger and thirst, it creates a dark
tone that revolves around revenge through irony.
In Blacaman the Good, Vendor of Miracles the author demonstrates the use of
hyperboles by taking events and making them overly expressed or exaggerated. When
Gabriel states because no one wanted to miss the show of the poisoned man, who had
already begun to puff up with the air of death and was twice as fat as hed been before,
giving off a froth of gall through his mouth (Garcia Marquez 273). Marquez expresses
the event with the poisoned man through a hyperbole. A simple sentence with not as

much expression and elaboration but Marquez choose to use hyperboles to make his
writing stand out in the eyes of the reader. This rhetorical device is one that can be
mistaken with imagery because with the use of hyperboles there can be a taste of
descriptive vocabulary. Marquez is very descriptive with his words and it gives you such
a vivid image in your mind that it could easily be mistaken for imagery instead of the use
of hyperboles.
In the short story The Two Kings and Two Labyrinths the rhetoric device of
hyperbole is shown when the author says a labyrinth so confused and so subtle that
the most prudent men would not venture to enter it, and those who did would lose their
way. Most unseemly was the edifice that resulted, for it is the prerogative of God, not
man, to strike confusion and inspire wonder (Borges Luis). When Luis says, for it is the
prerogative of God, not man, to strike confusion and inspire wonder(Borges Luis) he is
overly expressing that this labyrinth is something that is so elaborate and complex that
only the hands of God could have created something like that. The idea of something
that is created by humans being compared to the creation of this God is something that
is not comparable. Luis creates these overexaggerated comparisons for a reason.
The rhetorical device of using hyperboles adds to this dark tone by making the
negative things that are happening seem much more horrible and cruel in the eyes of
the reader. In the example of the man who had been bitten by the by the poisonous
snake, the over exaggeration that Marquez is deciding to put into his writing makes the
tone dark because it shows so much pain and struggle and those ideas produce
negative effect. When Luis talks about the labyrinth being comparable to something
God would create he makes it seem very well created and elaborate that it would be

impossible to leave. The fact that the labyrinth is so complicated that countless people
have died trying to escape it creates a dark tone because it makes things uneasy and
uneasiness can lead to negative actions or events.
Tone has to do with a lot of what the theme is made to be. The rhetorical devices
that had a dark tone to them created an overall dark and depressing theme. This overall
dark and depressing theme was that revenge was bittersweet. In both stories we see
how revenge is a topic that is a big main idea. In both stories revenge is bittersweet to
the person who is getting it because they are acting in a cruel way but they are enjoying
the most out of it. Rhetorical devices do a lot in writing that people might not
understand. If you actually take the time to see them in writing and establish that they
have more than one purpose, then it shows just how important they are.
Rhetorical devices are important and essential in writing. They are
important to be included because it gives authors a way to demonstrate why they wrote
what they did. They also help with elaboration. It helps the author elaborate on a certain
idea by not making it too exposing to the naked eye. People who know how to identify
the rhetorical devices will be able to notice the authors intentions with a naked eye. That
is what makes them unique. If you understand them it helps you see more. Seeing more
is good in literature because it makes you have an open mind.
In all, rhetorical devices in literature are very hard to find at times and very hard
to see with the naked eye. When you take time to see rhetorical devices active in
literature you are investing for the future. For me going through these two very different
yet very similar stories was challenging and it was even more of a struggle to find
rhetorical devices I was not as knowing of. I have learned about their importance to

literature as well as to me. I am no stronger in a way and I am improving my use of

rhetorical devices and my ability to see how they affect writing.

Works Cited
M rquez, Gabriel Garc a. Collected Stories. New York: Harper & Row, 1984. Print.

Borges, Jorge Luis, and Andrew Hurley. The Aleph (including the Prose Fictions from The
Maker). New York, NY, USA: Penguin, 2004. Print.