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Similes
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Arms Pinwheeling:
During Willie's riotous speech in Upton, Tiny Duffy, his political rival, tries to come on stage and contradict him to the audience. But Willie, drunk and hungover from the previous night and in a fit of passion, pushes Duffy off the stage, and he falls in quite humorous fashion:
I don't know whether Willie meant to do it. But anyway, he did it. He didn't exactly shove Duffy off the platform. He just started Duffy doing a dance along the edge, a kind of delicate, feather-toed, bemused, slow-motion adagio accompanied by arms pinwheeling around a face which was like a surprised custard pie with a hole scooped in the middle of the meringue, and the hole was Duffy's mouth, but no sound came out of it. There wasn't a sound over that five-acre tract of sweating humanity. They just watched Duffy do his dance.
Related Themes:
Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—The Man Who Got Hanged:
In Chapter 5, Jack visits the home of the Scholarly Attorney and meets George, the strangest character in the novel and one of the most sympathetic. The Scholarly Attorney tells Jack that George used to be a circus performer, but he was forced to leave. Jack, typically, is curious to know more:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"What was his act?"
"He was the man who got hanged."
"Oh," I said, and looked at George. That accounted for the big neck, no doubt. Then, "Did the apparatus go wrong with him and choke him or something?"
"No," the Scholarly Attorney said, "the whole matter simply grew distasteful to him."
Related Themes:
