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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
Key Examples in How the Other Half Lives
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Bad School Boys:
In Chapter 2 of How the Other Half Lives, Riis discusses how the tenement house system reached its current sordid state. Through the use of simile, Riis describes the spread of this unwholesome and predatory system:
It is one curse of the tenement house system that the worst houses exercise a levelling influence upon all the rest, just as one bad boy in a school room will spoil the whole class.
Related Themes:
Chapter 14
Explanation and Analysis—Privacy in the Tenements:
At the beginning of Chapter 14, Riis attempts to differentiate between flats—or standard apartments—and tenement housing, outlining specific features that distinguish tenements as uniquely unlivable spaces. He notes that an absence of privacy is the feature that best characterizes tenement life, with halls that are "highway[s] for all the world." To further emphasize this point, Riis delves into simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Below Houston Street the door-bell in our age is as extinct as the dodo [. . .]. Skilled and well-paid labor puts its stamp on the tenement even in spite of the open door, and usually soon supplies the missing bell.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Innocent Girls:
In Chapter 14, Riis details the plight of those in the slums he considers innocent victims of their environment: namely, women and young girls. In doing so, he utilizes a simile that doubles as a biblical allusion:
Unlock with LitCharts A+And yet it is not an uncommon thing to find sweet and innocent girls, singularly untouched by the evil around them, true wives and faithful mothers, literally "like jewels in a swine's snout," in the worst of the infamous barracks.
Related Themes:
