The Environment
Senior 2 · English
The Environment
Lesson 4 of 4
22 min
Facts tell us that a river is polluted. Literature makes us care. Writers, song-makers and campaigners use figures of speech to turn information into feeling, and your voice does the same job when you speak. In this lesson you will study two figures of speech, personification and hyperbole, and learn how intonation, the rise and fall of your voice, shows your attitude.
This is an original passage by Ganzaa. The Nyabarongo river is the speaker. Read it aloud if you can.
I am the Nyabarongo. I was born in the forested hills of the south-west, and I have been walking east ever since, carrying the rain of a thousand hills on my back.
For many years I was a patient river. I gave water to cows at noon and to women and men at dawn. I sang to the fishermen and let children splash at my edges.
But lately I have grown tired. Every rainy season the hills pour their red soil into me until I am as brown as tea with milk. People throw bottles and old sandals into my water, and I carry them away without complaining, because a river cannot say no. My fish hide in the deep places and wonder where the clear days went.
Last month a boy stood on my bank and shouted, "This river is so dirty that even the mud wants to leave!" His friends laughed. I did not laugh. I waited, the way rivers wait.
Then, on the last Saturday of the month, the people came with hoes and seedlings. They planted grass along my banks and trees on the slopes above me. A girl picked up a hundred bottles (she told her friends it was a million) and carried them away in sacks.
I am not clear yet. But tonight, for the first time in years, I can see the moon in my water, and I am smiling all the way to Lake Victoria.
What two kinds of pollution does the river describe?
Red soil washed from the hills (erosion) and rubbish such as bottles and sandals.
What happened on "the last Saturday of the month", and what is this day called in Rwanda?
People planted grass and trees and collected rubbish. It is umuganda, the monthly community work day.
Why can the river "see the moon" in its water at the end?
Because the water has become clearer after the clean-up and the planting.
Personification gives human qualities, feelings or actions to something that is not human. Worked example: "My fish ... wonder where the clear days went." Fish cannot wonder; people can. By giving the fish human thoughts, the writer makes us feel their loss as if it were our own.
More examples from the passage: the whole river speaks as "I"; the river is patient and tired; it sings, waits and smiles; the hills pour their soil.
Hyperbole (say: hy-PER-bo-lee) is deliberate, obvious exaggeration used for effect. It is not a lie, because the listener knows it is not meant literally. Worked example: the girl picked up a hundred bottles but "told her friends it was a million". Nobody believes it was a million; the exaggeration shows how tiring and proud the work made her feel.
Another example: "This river is so dirty that even the mud wants to leave!" The boy exaggerates to make his friends laugh and to show his disgust.
Model: "In 'the hills pour their red soil into me', the writer uses personification, because pouring is a deliberate human action. The effect is to make the erosion seem careless and constant, as if the hills are emptying a basket into the river."
Hyperbole often uses these two structures to show a result:
Worked example. Join: The water was very clear. We could see the stones on the bottom.
With so: The water was so clear that we could see the stones on the bottom.
With such: It was such clear water that we could see the stones on the bottom. (No a, because water is uncountable.)
Vocabulary from the passage: bank (the land along the side of a river), seedling (a very young plant grown from seed), patient (able to wait calmly), complain (say you are unhappy about something), slope (the side of a hill).
The same words can show very different attitudes depending on the tune of your voice. ↘ = voice falls, ↗ = voice rises.
| Tune | Attitude | Example |
|---|---|---|
| fall ↘ | certainty; a finished statement | The river is clean now. ↘ |
| rise ↗ | surprise, doubt, or a yes/no question | The river is clean now? ↗ |
| fall-rise ↘↗ | polite disagreement or a reservation ("but...") | Well, it's cleaner. ↘↗ |
| high, sharp fall ↘↘ | strong feeling: anger, excitement, delight | It's beautiful! ↘↘ |
1. Read the last paragraph of the passage aloud as the river. Choose a tune for "I am not clear yet" (a fall-rise works well: honest, but hopeful) and a high fall for "I am smiling all the way to Lake Victoria".
2. With a partner, prepare a 30-second radio announcement for the next umuganda. Include one personification and one hyperbole, and mark the tune (↘ ↗ ↘↗) above your key sentences.
Model: "Our hillside is crying out for help! ↘↘ Every rainy season it loses a mountain of soil. Do you want to help? ↗ Then bring a hoe on Saturday, and together we will give this hill its green coat back. ↘"
Tip
Personification = a person's actions or feelings given to a thing (the river waits).
Hyperbole = hyper (over the top) exaggeration (a million bottles).
In an exam, always go Name → Quote → Explain → Effect. Naming the device alone earns only part of the marks.
Name the device: The wind whispered through the eucalyptus trees.
Solution: Personification. Whispering is a human action; the wind is given a quiet, secret voice.
Name the device: I have told you a thousand times to close the tap!
Solution: Hyperbole. Nobody has counted a thousand times; the exaggeration shows the speaker's frustration.
Join with so ... that: The rain was very heavy. The road disappeared.
Solution: The rain was so heavy that the road disappeared.
Which tune shows surprise: "You planted fifty trees? ↗" or "You planted fifty trees. ↘"?
Solution: The rising tune ↗. A statement said with a rise sounds like a question and shows surprise or doubt.
Write one sentence in which Lake Kivu is personified.
Solution (example): Lake Kivu stretches lazily in the morning sun and hums to the fishing boats. (Stretching lazily and humming are human actions.)
Remember
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