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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
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Mother:
The narrator uses a metaphor that compares José Arcadio Buendía to a mother as he takes care of Amaranta in the temporary absence of Úrsula:
For several weeks José Arcadio Buendía let himself be overcome by consternation. He took care of little Amaranta like a mother. He bathed and dressed her, took her to be nursed four times a day, and even sang to her at night the songs that Úrsula never knew how to sing.
Usually, as matriarch of the household, Úrsula takes care of the children, while José Arcadio Buendía carries out his futile experiments in his alchemy lab. However, after José Arcadio (I) leaves Macondo following the birth of his son in order to follow a group of travelers, Úrsula travels beyond Macondo to find him, leaving José Arcadio Buendía alone to care for their children.
Though he usually pays little attention to his children, or anything outside of his lab, he takes surprisingly well to his new role as caregiver, taking care of his newborn daughter Amaranta “like a mother.” Through this simile, the narrator acknowledges both the usual division of labor in their household and José Arcadio Buendía’s surprising ability to take on Úrsula’s role, even if only temporarily.
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Pebble:
The narrator uses a simile when describing Aureliano’s uncomfortable feelings of attraction to the pre-pubescent Remedios, daughter of Don Apolinar Moscote, enemy of José Arcadio Buendía. After José Arcadio Buendía makes a deal with Moscote, the narrator notes that:
The soldiers left that same afternoon. A few days later José Arcadio Buendía found a house for the magistrate’s family. Everybody was at peace except Aureliano. The image of Remedios, the magistrate’s younger daughter, who, because of her age, could have been his daughter, kept paining him in some part of his body. It was a physical sensation that almost bothered him when he walked, like a pebble in his shoe.
Using a simile, the narrator notes that “the image of Remedios” becomes a source of irritation to Aureliano, “like a pebble in his shoe.” This simile suggests that Aureliano continues to think about Remedios without meaning to, and further, that his memory of her causes him some discomfort. This feeling of unease likely stems from the fact that Remedios, to whom Aureliano is strongly attracted, is only nine years old. Aureliano feels both shame for his attraction to the young girl and frustration that she cannot be married for many more years. Ultimately, he spends years waiting for Remedios to come of age before marrying her.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Francisco the Man:
Shortly after Melquíades returns to Macondo and helps save the town from the amnesia sickness, Francisco the Man, a 200-year-old troubadour, sets up shop in Catarino’s store in order to sing the news he has gathered from beyond the town. In describing this scene, the narrator uses simile and allusion:
The whole town went to listen to him to find out what had happened in the world [...] Aureliano went to Catarino’s store that night. He found Francisco the Man, like a monolithic chameleon, sitting in the midst of a circle of bystanders. He was singing the news with his old, out-of-tune voice, accompanying himself with the same archaic accordion that Sir Walter Raleigh had given him in the Guianas and keeping time with his great walking feet that were cracked from saltpeter.
Francisco the Man weaves news events from the surrounding region into a song, allowing the residents of Macondo to learn what has happened outside of the town for a small fee. Aureliano visits the shop and regards Francisco the Man “like a monolithic chameleon,” a simile that reflects both the man’s great size but also his otherwordly and unusual appearance.
The narrator further notes that, while singing, Francisco also accompanies himself on an “archaic accordion that Sir Walter Raleigh” gave to him. Here, the narration alludes to Walter Raleigh, a prominent English statesmen and explorer of the Elizabethan era, who traveled to South America in order to help establish a colonial presence for the English crown in its competition for territory with Spain. In alluding to Raleigh here, Márquez incorporates real figures from the history of Latin America into his own fantastical tale.
Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Like Shades:
The narrator uses a simile that compares an aged and dying Melquíades to a “shade” or ghost:
The newfound harmony was interrupted by the death of Melquíades. Although it was a foreseeable event, the circumstances were not. A few months after his return, a process of aging had taken place in him that was so rapid and critical that soon he was treated as one of those useless great-grandfathers who wander about the bedrooms like shades, dragging their feet, remembering better times aloud, and whom no one bothers about or remembers really until the morning they find them dead in their bed.
In the midst of a relatively peaceful period of time, Melquíades dies for the second time after a “rapid” process of aging that leaves him “treated as one of those useless great-grandfathers who wander about the bedrooms like shades.” In literature and poetry, a shade is a spirit or ghost who resides in the underworld. In comparing Melquíades to a shade in this simile, the narrator implies that he was already acting as if he was, in some sense, dead, haunting the house but being largely ignored by the others. Like a ghost, then, Melquíades shuffles slowly around the building, muttering to himself about the past. This simile also connects Melquíades to the many actual ghosts depicted in the story, such as that of Prudencio Aguilar, murdered by José Arcadio Buendía.
Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Kitchen:
An unnamed woman from Macondo uses a simile when attempting to describe a train, a new form of technology which nobody from the village has ever encountered before. After Aureliano Triste leaves behind the village, and his ice factory, in order to bring the railway to Macondo, the narrator notes that:
“It’s coming,” she finally explained. “Something frightful, like a kitchen dragging a village behind it.”
At that moment the town was shaken by a whistle with a fearful echo and a loud, panting respiration. During the previous weeks they had seen the gangs who were laying ties and tracks and no one paid attention to them because they thought it was some new trick of the gypsies, coming back with whistles and tambourines and their age-old and discredited song and dance about the qualities of some concoction put together by journeyman geniuses of Jerusalem.
Having never seen anything like a train before in the secluded village, the woman has little vocabulary to describe what she has seen. Using a simile, she claims that it is “like a kitchen dragging a village behind it.” Her humorous characterization emphasizes just how novel this form of technology is to the villagers, who are baffled by the noise and size of its complex machinery, and who initially dismiss the train as another "trick of the gypsies."
Related Themes:
Chapter 12
Explanation and Analysis—Burning Coals:
Márquez uses simile and metaphor to describe Colonel Aureliano Buendía's deep but impotent anger following the assassinations of all of his sons born during the war:
Colonel Aureliano Buendía did not recover his calm for a long time. He abandoned the manufacture of little fishes, ate with great difficulty, and wandered all through the house as if walking in his sleep, dragging his blanket and chewing on his quiet rage. At the end of three months his hair was ashen, his old waxed mustache poured down beside his colorless lips, but, on the other hand, his eyes were once more the burning coals that had startled those who had seen him born and that in other days had made chairs rock with a simple glance.
The narrator notes that, following the murders, Aureliano began to live "as if walking in his sleep," a simile that highlights the aimless nature of his frustrations. Desiring to take action but now too old to do anything about the difficult situation, Aureliano began "chewing on his quiet rage," a metaphor that suggests that he wastes a good deal of time in profitless anger, despite having never displayed much love for his sons while they were alive. Later, the narrator adds that his eyes were "burning coals," a metaphor that calls to mind earlier days in Aureliano's life, when he was full of boundless vitality and determination.
Explanation and Analysis—Like Kings:
The narrator uses simile and metaphor to describe the complex changes brought to the Buendía family by the railroad and the influx of foreign visitors to the once-remote town of Macondo:
Fernanda had to swallow her scruples and treat guests of the worst sort like kings as they muddied the porch with their boots, urinated in the garden, laid their mats down anywhere to take their siesta, and spoke without regard for the sensitivities of ladies or the proper behavior of gentlemen [...] Colonel Aureliano Buendía, convinced that the majority of those who came into his workshop to greet him were not doing it because of sympathy or regard but out of the curiosity to meet a historical relic, a museum fossil, decided to shut himself in by barring the door [...]
Fernanda, who was raised to think of herself as a future queen, is ironically forced to “swallow her scruples” and treat her new guests “like kings” despite their poor behavior, a simile that highlights the financial power of these white tourists and the town’s subsequent deference to them. Further, the narrator notes that the many visitors to Colonel Aureliano Buendía’s workshop treat him, he believes, like a “historic relic, a museum fossil,” metaphors that suggest that these visitors are only interested in briefly viewing the Colonel due to his important past role in the nation’s politics.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Acrobats of Commerce:
The narrator uses both simile and metaphor when describing some of the major social changes brought to Macondo by the introduction of the railroad:
Ever since the railroad had been officially inaugurated [...] on the streets of Macondo men and women were seen who had adopted everyday and normal customs and manners but who really looked like people out of a circus. In a town that had chafed under the tricks of the gypsies there was no future for those ambulatory acrobats of commerce who with equal effrontery offered a whistling kettle and a daily regime that would assure the salvation of the soul on the seventh day; but from those who let themselves be convinced out of fatigue and the ones who were always unwary, they reaped stupendous benefits.
The railroad changes Macondo in profound ways, connecting it to the outside world and allowing commerce to flow into the town. The narrator notes that the railroad leads new people into Macondo, people who “had adopted everyday and normal customs and manners” but nevertheless appeared “like people out of a circus.” Through this simile, the narrator emphasizes the strangeness of this new class of commercial workers who have come to Macondo to sell the latest technological innovations. Additionally, the narrator compares these sales agents, in a metaphor, to “acrobats,” highlighting their deft and skillful sales strategies. These metaphors and similes, drawn from the language of the circus, connect this wave of commerce to the old festivals set up by the “gypsies” who visited Macondo annually in the past.
Related Themes:
Chapter 13
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Wandering Star :
The narrator uses a simile that compares José Arcadio Segundo to a “wandering star” when describing his distant relationship to the other members of the Buendía family:
No one knew the details of his life. At one time it was discovered that he had no fixed abode, that he raised fighting cocks at Pilar Ternera’s house, and that sometimes he would stay there to sleep but that he almost always spent the night in the rooms of the French matrons. He drifted about, with no ties of affection, with no ambitions, like a wandering star in Úrsula’s planetary system.
While most members of the Buendía family live together, despite their tensions, in the family home in Macondo, José Arcadio Segundo maintains some distance from the others, lacking any “fixed abode” and instead spending his nights either with Pilar Ternera or in the French brothels. The narrator notes that he “drifted about [...] like a wandering star,” a simile that underscores the itinerant, aimless nature of his life and habits. Further, this simile imagines that Buendía family as stars in “Úrsula’s planetary system,” emphasizing their fixed habits and the powerful nature of fate in the story. Just as most stars move in predictable patterns throughout the sky, the other members of the family are bound by custom and destiny.
Explanation and Analysis—Mistress and Wife :
Márquez uses a simile that paradoxically suggests that Aureliano Segundo is cheating on his mistress with his wife. After he temporarily returns to his family home following his near-death at the end of his eating contest with The Elephant, Márquez writes that:
He did recover, indeed, in less than a week, and two weeks later he was celebrating the fact of his survival with unprecedented festivities. He continued living at Petra Cotes’s but he would visit Fernanda every day and sometimes he would stay to eat with the family, as if fate had reversed the situation and had made him the husband of his concubine and the lover of his wife.
Previously, Aureliano Segundo had spent most of his time living in the home of Petra Cotes, his mistress, neglecting his wife, Fernanda del Carpio. After a near-death experience, however, he begins to spend more time with his wife, to the consternation of Petra. Here, Márquez writes, in a simile, that it was "as if fate had reversed the situation," making Aureliano Segundo "the husband of his concubine and the lover of his wife." In one of the many paradoxes that characterize Aureliano Segundo's marriage, he feels as though he is cheating on his mistress, to whom he has pledged loyalty, when he returns home to his legal wife.
Related Themes:
Chapter 17
Explanation and Analysis—Shared Solitude :
After a stark reversal in their once good fortune, Aureliano Segundo and Petra Cotes discover that they both feel a new, truer form of love for one another. In his description of this new stage in their relationship, the narrator uses an oxymoron, as well as a number of similes:
Both looked back then on the wild revelry, the gaudy wealth, and the unbridled fornication as an annoyance and they lamented that it had cost them so much of their lives to find the paradise of shared solitude. Madly in love after so many years of sterile complicity, they enjoyed the miracle of loving each other as much at the table as in bed, and they grew to be so happy that even when they were two worn-out old people they kept on blooming like little children and playing together like dogs.
Looking back with regret about the time wasted during their days of "wild revelry," the narrator notes that Aureliano Segundo and Petra have now found a "paradise of shared solitude." This phrase is an oxymoron, as "solitude" is, by definition, a solitary experience rather than a "shared" one. However, the oxymoron suggests that Aureliano Segundo and Petra have now become so close to one another that they live as one collective entity. Further, the narrator uses a series of similes that compare them, in their new love, to "little children" and "dogs" that play together, suggesting that there is a new sense of liveliness in their relationship despite their age and maturity.
Related Themes:
Chapter 20
Explanation and Analysis—Genuine Jewelry :
When describing the financial difficulties that beset Aureliano and Amaranta Úrsula while she is pregnant, the narrator uses a simile that compares intellectual gifts and erudition to worthless jewelry:
In the lethargy of her pregnancy, Amaranta Úrsula tried to set up a business in necklaces made out of the backbones of fish. But except for Mercedes, who bought a dozen, she could not find any customers. Aureliano was aware for the first time that his gift for languages, his encyclopedic knowledge, his rare faculty for remembering the details of remote deeds and places without having been there, were as useless as the box of genuine jewelry that his wife owned, which must have been worth as much as all the money that the last inhabitants of Macondo could have put together.
Though Aureliano is, like his namesake, intellectually gifted, he realizes during a period of relative poverty that his “gift for language, encyclopedic knowledge, his rare faculty for remembering the details of remote deeds and places” are all “as useless as a box of genuine jewelry that his wife owned.” In some ways, this simile is surprising, as “genuine” jewels are generally worth a good deal of money. Here, however, this simile serves two functions, both underscoring the trivial nature of his erudition, and noting that even expensive jewels are “useless” when everyone in the village is too poor to exchange them for money.
