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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
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Hated Home:
Richard is pleased, in Chapter 2, to find out that he and his family will move in with his mother's cousin in Elaine, Arkansas, and that they will visit Granny in Jackson on the way. He describes this pleasure using both a metaphor and a simile:
As the words fell from my mother's lips, a long and heavy anxiety lifted from me. Excited, I rushed about and gathered my ragged clothes. I was leaving the hated home, hunger, fear, leaving days that had been as dark and lonely as death.
Related Themes:
Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Blind Man:
In Chapter 9, Richard gets a job working for an optometrist named Crane but is bullied out of it by Crane's cruel employees Pease and Reynolds. When Richard decides to leave the job, Crane gives him a severance payment, but their farewell is awkward, which Richard expresses through simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+He handed me my money, more than I had earned for the week. I thanked him and rose to leave. He rose. I went into the hallway and he followed me. He reached out his hand.
"It's tough for you down here," he said.
I barely touched his hand. I walked swiftly down the hall, fighting against crying again. I ran down the steps, then paused and looked back up. He was standing at the head of the stairs, shaking his head. I went into the sunshine and walked home like a blind man.
Related Themes:
