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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
Part 1, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—The Outsider:
In the second half of Chapter 1, Macon Dead II ponders his own business success story, perusing the landscape of houses he owns and rents to lower-income Black people. The following simile elucidates Macon's relationship with his tenants and the Black community at large:
Scattered here and there, his houses stretched up beyond him like squat ghosts with hooded eyes. He didn’t like to look at them in this light. During the day they were reassuring to see; now they did not seem to belong to him at all—in fact he felt as though the houses were in league with one another to make him feel like the outsider, the propertyless, landless wanderer.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—The Water Mark:
In the following example of simile, the narrator reflects on the water mark in the middle of Ruth's table, noting its psychological impact on her:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Like a lighthouse keeper drawn to his window to gaze once again at the sea, or a prisoner automatically searching out the sun as he steps into the yard for his hour of exercise, Ruth looked for the water mark several times during the day. She knew it was there, would always be there, but she needed to confirm its presence. Like the keeper of the lighthouse and the prisoner, she regarded it as a mooring, a checkpoint, some stable visual object that assured her that the world was still there.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Exposed:
In the following simile, the narrator ruminates on the exposed watermark on Ruth's dining room table, extending its significance to reflect on Ruth's entire character and mode of living.
Unlock with LitCharts A+But the water mark, hidden by the bowl all these years, was exposed. And once exposed, it behaved as though it were itself a plant and flourished into a huge suede-gray flower that throbbed like fever, and sighed like the shift of sand dunes. But it could also be still. Patient, restful, and still.
Related Themes:
