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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
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Jewel:
In the following example of simile from Chapter 3, Paul muses over his position as emperor, comparing the current constraints of his reign to what his life might have been. He employs an apt simile:
I never wanted to be a god, he thought. I wanted only to disappear like a jewel of trace dew caught by the morning. I wanted to escape the angels and the damned—alone . . . as though by an oversight.
Related Themes:
Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis—Arrow:
In the following example of simile from Chapter 16, Paul experiences a kind of religious fervor upon seeing Alia speak for the first time:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Nothing hides in such a night!” Alia said. “What rare light is this darkness? You cannot fix your gaze upon it! Senses cannot record it. No words describe it.” Her voice lowered. “The abyss remains. It is
pregnant with all the things yet to be. Ahhhhh, what gentle violence!”
Paul felt that he waited for some private signal from his sister. It could be any action or word, something of wizardry and mystical processes, an outward streaming that would fit him like an arrow into a cosmic bow. This instant lay like quivering mercury in his awareness.
Related Themes:
Chapter 24
Explanation and Analysis—Fabric:
In the following example of simile from Chapter 24, Duncan comforts Alia as she mourns the loss of her brother to the desert:
Unlock with LitCharts A+You should hear her grief. Wailing, giving moisture to the dead; she swears she loved him and knew it not. She reviles her Sisterhood, says she’ll spend her life teaching Paul’s children.”
“You trust her?”
“She reeks of trustworthiness!”
“Ahhh,” Idaho murmured. The final pattern unreeled before his awareness like a design on fabric. The defection of the Princess Irulan was the last step. It left the Bene Gesserit with no remaining lever against the Atreides heirs.
Related Themes:
