At the end of the story, after Miss Rousset has slept with the German commander in order to secure the free passage of herself and her nine French traveling companions, the group blatantly shuns the woman, judging her for her actions. At this point Maupassant uses two similes to capture Miss Rousset’s loneliness and grief, as seen in the following passage:
No one looked at her or even thought of her. She felt herself drowned in the scorn of these honest scoundrels, who had first sacrificed her and then rejected her, like some improper or useless article […] she felt ready to weep. She made terrible efforts to prevent it, making ugly faces, swallowing her sobs as children do, but the tears came and glistened in the corners of her eyes, and then two great drops, detaching themselves from the rest, rolled slowly down like little streams of water that filter through rock.
The first simile here—in which Miss Rousset experiences herself as being used “like some improper or useless article”—communicates Miss Rousset’s awareness of how her higher-class compatriots objectified and exploited her for their own benefit. She understands at this point how they encouraged her to sleep with the German commander so that they could get what they wanted (free passage to La Havre).
The second simile in this passage—the description of Miss Rousset’s tears “roll[ing] slowly down [her cheeks] like little streams of water that filter through rock”—is meant to help readers connect emotionally with the woman. It’s likely that Maupassant’s readers at the time would similarly have the impulse to judge a lower-class sex worker (even if fictional), but the tender way in which he describes her tears helps readers understand that he is allying himself with the moral, lower-class character in the story and that they should, too.
When introducing readers to Miss Rousset, Maupassant spends some time describing her appearance, using several similes and metaphors in the process:
Small, round, and fat as lard, with puffy fingers choked at the phalanges, like chaplets of short sausages; with a stretched and shining skin, an enormous bosom which shook under her dress […]. Her face was a round apple, a peony bud ready to pop into bloom, and inside that opened two great black eyes, shaded with thick brows that cast a shadow within.
The first simile here—in which Miss Rousset is described as “fat as lard”—explains the title of the story, “Boule de Suif,” or “ball of fat.” This simile, when combined with the following one—her fingers were “like chaplets of short sausages”—serve to help readers visualize Miss Rousset’s robust figure. How Miss Rousset takes up space physically also points to the ways in which she is comfortable taking up space figuratively: while the other women in the carriage are wives controlled by the wills of their husbands or nuns devoted to the will of God, Miss Rousset is independent, autonomous, and refuses to act smaller than she is just because of her profession as a sex worker.
The metaphors here—in which her face is referred to as “a round apple” and also “a peony bud ready to pop into bloom”—again communicate Miss Rousset’s vitality and liveliness. These descriptions are important to helping readers understand the tragedy of Miss Rousset losing her exuberance at the end of the story after she is betrayed by all of her compatriots traveling with her.
