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Elements of Tall Tales
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Understatement
Creating emphasis by saying less than is actually or literally true. Opposite of hyperbole.
Example: In "Letter to John Adams, " Abigail Adams points out the tyranny of male power by gently saying, "I cannot say that I think you very generous to the ladies."
Hyperbole
Truth is exaggerated for emphasis or humorous effect. Also known as an overstatement.
Example: "...he would go to work and bore me nearly to death with some infernal reminiscence of him as long and tedious as it should be useless to me. If that was the design, it certainly succeeded."
Characteristics of Tall Tales
Tall Tales are fictional stories that stretch the truth.
- exaggerated story with lots of actions
- larger than life characters
- characters with super human abilities
- impossible story plot
- main character overcoming a major problem
- unbelievable
Examples: Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill
Anecdote
Brief story that focuses on a single episode or event in a person's life and that is used to illustrate a particular point.
Dialect
Diction
Distinct form of a language as it is spoken in one geographical area or by a particular social or ethnic group.
Example: "Why, it never made no difference to him--he would bet on anything--the dangdest feller. Parson Walker's wife laid very sick once, for a good while, and it seemed as if they warn't going to save her..."
A writer's or speaker's choice of words. Includes both vocabulary (individual words) and syntax (the order or arrangement of words). It can be either formal or informal, technical or common, abstract or concrete.
Example: "Dearest reader, I humbly entreat you to eschew the latest celebrity tittle-tattle and instead devote your attention to diction."