Previous
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: Cheers in the Wirehouse
Explanation and Analysis—Punchbowl in Hell:
The novel uses a powerful simile to capture the grotesque state of Malachi Constant's extravagant but ruined existence. The image describes the scene of chaos and excess following Constant's 56-day party, an event he organized in a foolish attempt to avoid the prophecy of Winston Niles Rumfoord.
When Constant finally wakes up, drunk in the gutter of his kidney-shaped pool, the surroundings reflect his moral and financial disintegration. The comparison vividly portrays the depths of his moral decay and wealth-induced folly:
The swimming pool looked less like a facility for sport than like a punchbowl in hell. One of Constant’s arms dangled in the pool itself. From the wrist underwater came the glint of his solar watch. The watch had stopped.
This imagery is grounded in the physical debris of the pool, which symbolizes the moral decay of Constant’s inherited wealth. The pool bottom is paved with wreckage from the party, including broken glass, liquor, drugs like peyotl buttons, a hypodermic syringe, a television set, and the ruins of a white grand piano. The pool, intended as a facility for leisure, becomes a symbol of personal, material hell for the elite.
The simile captures the extent of the excessive decadence in which Constant wallows, which includes alcohol, narcotics, and women, all financed by his massive inherited fortune. His efforts to evade his destiny by pursuing grotesque pleasure ultimately end in ruin, highlighting human foolishness and hubris. The moment is climactic in Constant’s fall from grace; he has been reduced to sleeping in the gutter of his own "hell" pool. Furthermore, the fact that his solar watch has stopped underscores the abrupt halt of his life and luck, signaling the end of his self-imposed luxury and the beginning of his conscripted journey through fate. The simile thus emphasizes that pleasure-seeking and avoidance of duty lead not to freedom but to grotesque chaos, connecting directly to the themes of wealth, power, and inequality.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Life as a Roller Coaster:
The passage employs an extended simile comparing life to a roller coaster to explain Winston Niles Rumfoord’s understanding of linear time and human existence, particularly emphasizing the novel's central theme of predeterminism over free will.
In this simile, Rumfoord attempts to justify his failure to warn his wife, Beatrice, about the stock market crash and the terrible fate awaiting her. He tells Beatrice that knowing the future is ultimately useless because it cannot be changed:
"Look," said Rumfoord, "life for a punctual person is like a roller coaster." He turned to shiver his hands in her face. "All kinds of things are going to happen to you! Sure," he said, "I can see the whole roller coaster you're on. And sure—I could give you a piece of paper that would tell you about every dip and turn, warn you about every bogeyman that was going to pop out at you in the tunnels. But that wouldn't help you any."
The image supports Rumfoord’s belief that everything that ever has been always will be, and everything that ever will be always has been, which came to him in a flash after he ran his spaceship into the chrono-synclastic infundibulum. Because the infundibulum spreads him across time and space, he can “see the whole roller coaster” that Beatrice is on.
The simile functions as a powerful representation of predeterminism, reducing the complex human experience, including marriage, conflict, and personal choices, to mere mechanical motion. Rumfoord suggests that knowing the future would not change Beatrice's fate, because she “still [has] to take the roller-coaster ride."
Rumfoord further confirms that Malachi Constant is part of the ride:
"And Malachi Constant is part of the roller coaster?" said Beatrice.
"Yes," said Rumfoord.
"And there's no avoiding him?" said Beatrice.
"No," said Rumfoord.
This exchange emphasizes that human choice is primarily an illusion, created by not seeing the full, predetermined path. The knowledge of the future, as Rumfoord notes, rather "takes the glamour out of fortunetelling."
The irony is further highlighted by Beatrice’s own memory of rejecting a rollercoaster ride when she was 10 years old, saying it looked “silly and dirty and dangerous,” which she believed was the correct way to treat roller coasters. However, Rumfoord insists that even his own life is like a roller coaster, and he is "caught up in the monotonous clockwork of the Solar System." The image of the roller coaster illustrates the novel’s view that all human actions, whether courageous or cautious, are set in motion by circumstances outside human control.
Related Themes:
Chapter 4: Tent Rentals
Explanation and Analysis—Moving Like Marionettes:
A simile appears as the Martian regiments break formation following a public execution:
An observer would have been at a loss as to who was really in charge, since even the generals moved like marionettes, keeping time to the idiotic words:
Rented a tent, a tent, a tent;
Rented a tent, a tent, a tent.
Rented a tent!
Rented a tent!
Rented a, rented a tent.
The comparison of generals to marionettes shows that even the high-ranking officers are essentially powerless, their actions dictated by external forces. This description underscores the dehumanization of the military; the soldiers' thoughts, choices, and movements are governed by antennae implanted in their skulls. These implanted antennae dictate military instructions and enforce morality by causing pain whenever a soldier considers doing something deemed "wrong."
The rhythm guiding their march is based on “idiotic words,” suggesting that their obedience is mindless rather than based on intelligence or strategic thought. This lack of genuine agency means that an observer cannot tell who is truly in charge. The real power lies with the undercover "real commanders," like Boaz, who are hidden among the low-ranking soldiers and who control the troops via sophisticated technology. This secretive and insidious power structure allows the commanders to place everyone else under absolute control while remaining safe from rebellion.
The absurdity of the Martian army is highlighted by the contrast between the soldiers' rigid, mechanized movement and the triviality of their mission: a mechanical march toward pointless death in a war orchestrated by Rumfoord for trivial reasons. The army's actions illustrate that choice is largely an illusion and that external forces control individual actions.
Related Themes:
Chapter 6: A Deserter in Time of War
Explanation and Analysis—Textile Mills:
The narrator uses a stark simile to describe the Martian Army recruits after they have undergone amnesia treatments and had radio antennae installed in their skulls, a procedure that turns them into obedient mechanisms. The simile explicitly compares the appearance of the soldiers’ eyes to the empty windows of dilapidated industrial structures:
The recruits’ eyes were as empty as the windows of abandoned textile mills. So were the eyes of the instructress, since she, too, had recently had her memory cleaned out.
This image immediately evokes feelings of dehumanization and decay. The fact that their memories have been wiped and an antenna has been installed means that their bodies and minds are now tightly controlled by a technological implant, effectively turning them into living robots who are remote-controlled by the army. The adhesive plaster visible on their shaved heads shows precisely where the antenna was put in. The emptiness of their eyes reflects the erasure of their free will and personal history. Their minds have been systematically cleared out, made "virtually as sterile as a scalpel fresh from the autoclave," in preparation for new military training and doctrines.
The comparison to abandoned textile mills links the soldiers' condition to the failures of industrial society, as textile mills symbolize mechanical repetition and mass production. By rendering the soldiers' identities inert and useless, the Martian War Machine reduces them to hollow mechanisms serving a meaningless cause. This reinforces the novel's satire of the absolute nature of external control and the futility of human existence when stripped of uniqueness. In the Martian Army, even the highest-ranking officers and doctors often wear these antennae, placing everyone under tight control by the secret "real commanders" who do not wear them. The eyes' vacancy shows that the men, including Unk, are now machines following radio commands, entirely stripped of the ability to think critically or act independently.
Related Themes:
