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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
Prologue
Explanation and Analysis—Holding Back:
In the Prologue, Angelou shares a short anecdote with readers about an embarrassing moment from her childhood. During an Easter Sunday service, Angelou fails to remember the poem she memorized to read in front of the congregation. As she runs out of the church, humiliated, she has an accident. Angelou utilizes both hyperbole and simile in this moment to convey its significance:
I tried to hold, to squeeze it back, to keep it from speeding, but when I reached the church porch I knew I'd have to let it go, or it would probably run right back up to my head and my poor head would burst like a dropped watermelon, and all the brains and spit and tongue and eyes would roll all over the place.
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Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Dew Drops:
In Chapter 3, Angelou recounts the measures that her Uncle Willie would take to hide from the KKK. She utilizes simile in her description of his hiding place, which happens to be a vegetable container sitting in Momma's store:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The heavy sounds pushed their way up out of the blanket of vegetables and I pictured his mouth pulling down on the right side and his saliva flowing into the eyes of new potatoes and waiting there like dew drops for the warmth of morning.
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Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—The Depression:
In Chapter 8, Angelou recounts her experience living through the Depression in rural Arkansas. She observes, using simile as a vessel, that the economic downturn affected the White and Black communities in Stamps differently:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The Depression must have hit the white section of Stamps with cyclonic impact, but it seeped into the Black area slowly, like a thief with misgivings.
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Chapter 10
Explanation and Analysis—Virgin Mary:
In the following passage from Chapter 10, Angelou attempts to unpack her relationship with her biological mother, whom she exalts but does not understand. To illustrate the nature of this relationship, Angelou defaults to religious language, both alluding to the Bible and comparing her mother to the Virgin Mary:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I could never put my finger on her realness. . . . I thought [my mother] looked just like the Virgin Mary. But what mother and daughter understand each other, or even have the sympathy for each other's lack of understanding? Mother had prepared a place for us, and we went to it gratefully.
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Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Helpless Pigs:
In the following example of simile from Chapter 11, Angelou compares Mr. Freeman to the young pigs she and her family would fatten for the slaughter on their Arkansas farm:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I felt very sorry for Mr. Freeman. I felt as sorry for him as I had felt for a litter of helpless pigs born in our backyard sty in Arkansas. We fattened the pigs all year long for the slaughter on the first good frost, and even as I suffered for the cute little wiggly things, I knew how much I was going to enjoy the fresh sausage and hog's headcheese they could give me only with their deaths.
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Chapter 14
Explanation and Analysis—Sarcasm:
In Chapter 14, Angelou closely observes the changes in her brother Bailey's behavior following their return to Stamps, Arkansas. His method of coping is much different from hers: where Angelou retreats in on herself as a form of protection against the trauma she experienced, Bailey hides his angst behind humor. Angelou uses simile to illustrate this:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Bailey played on the country folks' need for diversion. Just after our return he had taken to sarcasm, picked it up as one might pick up a stone, and put it snufflike under his lip. The double entendres, the two-pronged sentences, slid over his tongue to dart rapier-like into anything that happened to be in the way.
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