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Setting
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
Section 1
Explanation and Analysis—Angel of Death:
In the following excerpt from Section 1, Silko illustrates Tayo's post-VA hospital experience through the use of vivid figurative language. Both allusion and simile combine in this harrowing scene:
He lay on the concrete listening to the voices that surrounded him, voices that were either soft or distant. They spoke to him in English, and when he did not answer, there was a discussion and he heard the Japanese words vividly. He wasn’t sure where he was any more, maybe back in the jungles again; he felt a sick sweat shiver over him like the shadow of the angel Auntie talked about.
On account of his traumatic experiences during WWII, Tayo responds with fear and anxiety to the presence of Japanese people at the train station (despite the fact that these are completely normal civilians). Silko likens the "sick sweat shiver" Tayo feels to the shadow of "that angel Auntie talked about"—likely the angel of death, an allusion to the final plague against the Egyptians in the biblical book of Exodus. This allusion tracks, given that Auntie is a Christian.
It is telling that, in the midst of his traumatic flashback, Tayo's mind wanders to Christian imagery rather than that of the Laguna Pueblo mythology and pantheon. Silko uses an allusion prevalent in Western culture, rather than Laguna Pueblo culture, to illustrate just how deeply colonial influence has penetrated Tayo's mind and community.
Related Themes:
Section 2
Explanation and Analysis—Inside a Coffin:
In Section 2, Auntie forces Tayo to lie in Rocky's old bed momentarily. This makes Tayo uncomfortable, given that Rocky is dead; Auntie's unassuming actions only serve to remind Tayo of his survivor's guilt. Observe the following passage from Section 2, in which Tayo utilizes simile to describe his guilt and discomfort:
He felt the old mattress then, where all the years of Rocky’s life had made contours and niches that Tayo’s bones did not fit: like plump satin-covered upholstery inside a coffin, molding itself around a corpse to hold it forever.
Tayo feels out of place lying in Rocky's old bed, which he compares to a coffin through the use of a simile. By placing himself in the "coffin" of Rocky's bed, Tayo expresses his wish to replace Rocky in the grave, desperately wishing that death had claimed him instead.
In part, Tayo's wish to have Rocky replace him in the land of the living stems from insecurity. Rocky was always the golden child—the athletic child, the child with two Laguna Pueblo parents. Tayo is the half-White child with a "problematic" mother. He internalizes his community's scorn, along with that of the White community, leading to guilt and a chronic devaluing of Tayo's own life and contributions to the world.
Related Themes:
Section 3
Explanation and Analysis—Monstrous Twins:
In the following excerpt from Section 3, Silko uses a simile to characterize Little Sister's struggle with internalized racism:
She hated the people at home when white people talked about their peculiarities; but she always hated herself more because she still thought about them, because she knew their pain at what she was doing with her life. The feelings of shame, at her own people and at the white people, grew inside her, side by side like monstrous twins that would have to be left in the hills to die.
Silko compares Little Sister's twin feelings of shame—directed at both Laguna Pueblo people and White people—to "monstrous twins" dwelling inside of her. This simile offers a figurative explanation for Little Sister's defiant behavior. The resentment she feels towards Laguna Pueblo people originates from the same interracial conflict that cultivated her justifiable anger towards White people. Her feelings concerning these disparate groups are twin emotions: she hates the White people because of their condescension, oppression, and racism; and she resents her own people, in turn, for their unilateral rejection of her mixed-race relationships. The idea that these "monstrous twins" will have to be "left in the hills to die" highlights Little Sister's desire to rid herself of these complicated feelings.
Related Themes:
Section 7
Explanation and Analysis—Living Uranium:
Near the end of Section 7, Tayo stumbles upon a uranium mine abandoned by the U.S. government. He finally makes the connection between his own suffering and that of humans around the world, recognizing that Laguna Pueblo people and Japanese civilians share a common oppressor. Relieved at the ceremony's completion and empowered by this realization of interconnectedness, Tayo goes on to observe the uranium ore within the mine, using a simile to entwine even this dangerous rock in the world's broader relational web:
He knelt and found an ore rock. The gray stone was streaked with powdery yellow uranium, bright and alive as pollen; veins of sooty black formed lines with the yellow, making mountain ranges and rivers across the stone. But they had taken these beautiful rocks from deep within earth and they had laid them in a monstrous design, realizing destruction on a scale only they could have dreamed.
In the above passage, Silko likens yellow uranium to "pollen" that is "bright and alive." To Tayo, these rocks are beautiful, living things, not responsible for the actions of those who harness their physical properties for mass human destruction. White settler colonialism and its agents are the true monsters, capable of "realizing destruction" beyond what even uranium itself could design. The actions of the US government, the passage implies, are what operate against nature.
Related Themes:
