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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 If Beale Street Could Talk
Troubled About My Soul
Explanation and Analysis—Plunging Into Water:
At the beginning of the novel, Tish visits Fonny in jail and they speak over a phone, separated by a glass barrier. During their conversation, Tish works herself up to say what she has come to tell Fonny: "Alonzo, we're going to have a baby." Fonny says nothing at first, and they just stare at each other. Baldwin describes this image using a simile:
I looked at him. I know I smiled. His face looked as though it were plunging into water. I couldn't touch him. I so wanted to touch him. I smiled again and my hands got wet on the phone and then for a moment I couldn't see him at all and I shook my head and my face was wet and I said, "I'm glad. I'm glad. Don't you worry. I'm glad."
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Snowstorms in the Tropics:
After months of imprisonment, the courts repeatedly postpone Fonny's trial, despite the best efforts of Hayward, the White lawyer the family hired. Tish describes how Hayward continues his efforts despite Fonny's case seeming futile, using his "charm, patience, money, and backbone of tempered steel." But Hayward, try as he might, cannot speed up the courts, as Tish describes in a simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But the calendars were full—it would take about a thousand years to try all the people in the American prisons, but the Americans are optimistic and still hope for time—and sympathetic or merely intelligent judges are as rare as snowstorms in the tropics.
Related Themes:
