Question

Which figure of speech is used in this text?
I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth . . . My parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them.

—J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

Answer 1

This is hyperbole — an obvious exaggeration. Saying each parent would have "about two hemorrhages apiece" if told something personal is an exaggerated, humorous way to stress how shocked/upset they would be.