Jonathan B. Fabian Andra Morrow Literature 8 May 2013 The Exaggerations in Babe the Blue Ox Exaggeration is a literary device used in many tall tales to add humor and to allow their writers to bring attention to a particular character trait that is important to the storyline. It can also be used to describe the setting and time a story takes place. In the story, Babe the Blue Ox, the author uses exaggeration many times to emphasize her characters and add humor to her story. While there are the stories of a giant ox that can perform these great feats, there are many types exaggerations in Babe the Blue Ox.
Babe the Blue Ox is about Paul Bunyan and his companion ox, Babe. Babe is described as measuring forty-two ax handles across the eyes and his coat being a fine deep blue. In this story, it tells of Babe’s adventures with Paul Bunyan and the logging camps. One of the major stories in this story is about Babe pulling out the crooks out of an eighteen mile long crooked road, something that a normal ox could not do. In the story of Babe the Blue Ox, exaggeration is used to add humor to the story in many instances.
It helps draw the story together so that it is not boring and slow-paced. Some of the exaggerations are also used to explain some natural parts of the land in America and Canada. For example, they explain why there are so many lakes in Michigan, because Babe and Paul Bunyan made them on their way back to America. It adds humor to the story and explains one of the natural parts of America. One of the main exaggerations in the story is when Babe has to pull the crooks out of an eighteen-mile long road.
The Essay on Babe the Blue Ox
Well now, one winter it was so cold that all the geese flew backward and all the fish moved south and even the snow turned blue. Late at night, it got so frigid that all spoken words froze solid afore they could be heard. People had to wait until sunup to find out what folks were talking about the night before. Paul Bunyan went out walking in the woods one day during that winter of the Blue Snow. ...
There is already humor in the mere suggestion that anything or anyone could pull the crookedness out of a road. It also again explains why something natural changed, the road went from being severely crooked to being straight , thanks to a giant ox. There are many other instances of exaggeration speckled throughout the story. Such as when Babe kicks a hole in a mans head and the cook is able to fill in the hole with hotcake batter, is another example of using exaggerations as humor when they say that the same man was right as rain after.
It tells us in a farcical way that the man was not very bright and that hotcake batter in his head meant no difference than actual brains. Another exaggeration was that every time they shod him, shod meaning they put new shoes on him, they would have to open up a new iron mine on Lake Superior, even then humor and an explanation of a natural occurrence. If the author had not used exaggeration the story would be drab and monotonous. There would be no feeling or depth, it would just be a story about a logger and his ox Babe.
Babe would be average-sized and average-colored, completely ordinary. The story itself would be ordinary, it wouldn’t catch interest. Without exaggeration our tall tales and legends would not be interesting to learn about, they would catch our interest at all. Exaggeration is an essential part of our American folklore, a part that if we did not have, we would not have the legends that make up our past. We would not have the stories that have been told for generations, the stories that seem to get longer by the passing of time.
