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34 pages 1 hour read

Allie Brosh

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

Nonfiction | Graphic Novel/Book | Adult | Published in 2013

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Essay Topics

1.

How could Brosh’s use of hyperbole inform the choice of title for this book?

2.

How does Hyperbole and a Half fit into the larger landscape of graphic novels, graphic memoirs, or memoirs generally? What genre conventions does it embrace or discard?

3.

How does Brosh’s disclosures about her mental illness inform the reader’s view of her as a character? As the author?

4.

What types of humor are present in this book, and how does humor operate as a structural device?

5.

Pick two examples of a time when Brosh struggled with completing life tasks. How did her approach to her circumstances differ? Was one event more or less successful than another?

6.

How do Brosh and the other characters respond to their environments?

7.

What role does the setting of the Pacific Northwest play in Brosh’s depiction of life events?

8.

How does the book version of Hyperbole and a Half compare to the web version (available at http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/)? Are there print chapters that might work better in a digital medium (or vice versa)?

9.

What role do pacing and structure play in the humor of individual chapters or pieces in this book?

10.

What kinds of rhetorical strategies does Brosh use to elicit reaction from the reader (whether a laugh or a cry)?

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