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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
Similes
Explanation and Analysis—Like Fugitives:
Near the beginning of the story, when telling Laura and Nick about his run-ins with Terri’s abusive ex-boyfriend Ed, Mel uses a simile, as seen in the following passage:
“He took this twenty-two pistol he'd bought to threaten Terri and me with. Oh, I'm serious. The man was always threatening. You should have seen the way we lived in those days. Like fugitives. I even bought a gun myself. Can you believe it? A guy like me? But I did, I bought one for self-defense and carried it in the glove compartment.”
The simile here—in which Mel describes Terri and himself as living “like fugitives”—captures the level of fear that Mel and Terri lived with when Ed was threatening the two of them (even going as far as showing up at their home with a gun). Mel describes the way that he started to carry a gun himself because he was so unnerved by Ed's threats.
It is notable that, while Mel goes on to decry Ed’s treatment of Terri, Terri ends up defending his actions, saying that they came from his love for her. This is one of many moments in the story when Carver draws attention to the ways that love and violence often go hand-in-hand. Though Mel disagrees with Terri’s assessment of Ed’s motivations—telling her, “that’s not love”—Mel ends up speaking to Terri in aggressive (verging on violent) ways as the story goes on, essentially proving her point.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Somewhere Enchanted:
Near the beginning of the story, Nick, in one of his rare narrative asides, describes the scenery outside of Mel and Terri’s kitchen, using imagery and a simile in the process:
Outside in the backyard, one of the dogs began to bark. The leaves of the aspen that leaned past the window ticked against the glass. The afternoon sun was like a presence in this room, the spacious light of ease and generosity. We could have been anywhere, somewhere enchanted. We raised our glasses again and grinned at each other like children who had agreed on something forbidden.
Here, Nick uses imagery when describing the sounds of a dog barking as well as the “ticking” sound of leaves hitting Mel and Terri's kitchen window. In addition to helping readers hear the scene, Nick also helps them visualize it, describing the sunlight in the room as creating a “spacious light of ease and generosity.” These details bring readers into the scene with the two couples, helping them understand viscerally the ease that the characters feel at the beginning of the story.
Nick notably closes this passage with a simile, describing how he, Laura, Mel, and Terri, when raising their drinks, “grinned at each other like children who had agreed on something forbidden.” Here, the mood of the story shifts slightly away from the sense of “ease and generosity” described earlier, hinting that, as the two couples start to drink (and become more and more inebriated), some darker or “forbidden” truths may emerge. This proves to be true, particularly in the way that Mel becomes increasingly aggressive with Terri, despite his statements early on in the story about how love and violence cannot coexist.
Related Themes:
