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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
Similes
Explanation and Analysis—Learn From Their Mistakes:
A central concept in Emerson's theories of unity, on which he expounds at great length in "History," is that all historical figures—great and terrible—are reflections of the same human mind at work. Given that it's this very same human mind that the reader will be using to peruse Emerson's writing, Emerson argues for a vision of history that treats every historical figure as a version of our own selves—which means that we can learn from historical mistakes as if they were our own blunders.
This much he relates through the use of allusion and simile:
Each new law and political movement has a meaning for you. Stand before each of its tablets and say, 'Under this mask did my Proteus nature hide itself.' This remedies the defect of our too great nearness to ourselves. This throws our actions into perspective,—and as crabs, goats, scorpions, the balance and the waterpot lose their meanness when hung as signs in the zodiac, so I can see my own vices without heat in the distant persons of Solomon, Alcibiades, and Catiline.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Moonlight Genesis:
To Emerson, each everyday experience—even the most mundane—is microcosmic for much larger natural, historical, or cosmic events. At one moment, Emerson uses a small but elegant simile in service of this philosophy, comparing the moonlight that bursts through the clouds at nighttime with the light from the the creation of the universe:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The man who has seen the rising moon break out of the clouds at midnight, has been present like an archangel at the creation of light and of the world.
Related Themes:
