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Definition of Simile
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like" or "as," but can also... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often... read full definition
Chapter 13: Pure Language
Explanation and Analysis—Sasha's Name:
Despite the seemingly random chronology of A Visit from the Goon Squad, the final chapter indeed features a return to Chapter 1, structuring the novel with a circular narrative. A simile captures the pivotal moment that Alex suddenly remembers the name of the woman he met briefly years ago: Sasha.
While walking on the street with Rebecca and their daughter, Cara-Ann, Alex finds himself thinking of the circumstances that brought him and his wife together. He passively recalls the memory of that night and makes an unexpected realization:
[...] Alex has coaxed [Rebecca] out for beers and burritos, then had sex with her on the roof of her building on Avenue D, to escape her three roommates [...] And in that moment, without warning, Alex abruptly recalled the name of the girl who had worked for Bennie Salazar: Sasha. It came to him effortlessly, like a door falling open. Sasha.
While Alex muses somewhat inattentively on the night he and Rebecca met, a momentous realization occurs: Sasha was the name of Bennie's assistant he met all those years ago. A striking simile captures the gravity of this moment. It happens with all the ease of a door falling open.
Simile in this passage engages a number of important features throughout A Visit from the Goon Squad. For example, the ease with which Sasha's name returns to Alex highlights the importance of connection in the novel, specifically the connection between memories. It is only during Alex's remembering of his first night with Rebecca that Sasha's name emerges so effortlessly after many years. Moreover, this door simile calls to mind the new opening, the new connection between Chapters 1 and 13, which completes the circular narrative of A Visit from the Goon Squad.
Related Themes:
