TOW #4- Hyperbole and a Half (IRB)

            When scrolling online whether it’s through blog posts or tweets on twitter it never feels as if you’re reading as you would read a proper novel. When I read any text for school I am conscious of myself reading at all times and I have one purpose in mind: get it done. Reading Hyperbole and a Half simulates reading a text message, or a funny article online.

            Allie Brosh has created an assortment of stories that can teach someone a lesson as well as make someone laugh. Brosh doesn’t write about her love of family or the meaning of life she writes about how she found out her dog was retarded and how she gets things done by procrastinating. These stories actually happened to her which giver her automatic ethos.

            Her placement of stories is random. It is not in chronological order. The first story is when she was ten years old and in the second story she is living alone with a dog. This forces the story not to focus on becoming the person she is today but rather the true stories and their meaning. This helps Brosh achieve her purpose of helping her readers relate to her and learn from her mistakes.

            On every page there is at least one illustration. These illustrations are not detailed pieces of artwork. They are stick figure sketches that have a joking animated style to them. Each sketch is simple in order to not draw too much attention to them however they keep readers interested and they help convey emotion. For example, in a story about the authors need for cake at her grandmothers birthday party Brosh says that while her grandmother was holding her she “lapsed into a full scale psychological meltdown”. On the next page there is a drawing of Brosh in her grandmothers arms as a blur to show how quickly and violently she was moving. This assists the reader in picturing the event.

            In the end of each story there is a lesson to be learned. For example, in Brosh’s story about depression she ends by saying that not knowing the future is a strange ray of hope. She says this in order to help people currently struggling with depression or relate to the ones who already have.

            Whether it’s through her comedic illustrations or meaningful endings, Allie Brosh makes the reader feel as if they are not reading a book, rather just listening to someone tell a story. She also manages to fit meaning into what seems like the most pointless story.