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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 Never Let Me Go
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Shakespeare:
In the following passage from Chapter 1, Kathy introduces readers to Tommy, another Hailsham student known for his tantrums and his resistance to "creativity." It is curious, given these two defining characteristics, that Kathy chooses to describe Tommy's "rage" by comparing it to the theatrical arts:
I suppose Tommy wasn’t used to being disturbed during his rages, because his first response when I came up to him was to stare at me for a second, then carry on as before. It was like he was doing Shakespeare and I’d come up onto the stage in the middle of his performance. Even when I said: ‘Tommy, your nice shirt. You'll get it all messed up,’ there was no sign of him having heard me.
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Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Hall of Mirrors:
In Chapter 2, Kathy describes the donation center for the readers' benefit, dwelling on the eerie, haunted feelings the building instills in all who enter. She utilizes imagery and a simile for this purpose:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Everything — the walls, the floor — has been done in gleaming white tiles, which the centre keeps so clean when you first go in it’s almost like entering a hall of mirrors. Of course, you don’t exactly see yourself reflected back loads of times, but you almost think you do. When you lift an arm, or when someone sits up in bed, you can feel this pale, shadowy movement all around you in the tiles.
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Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—A Cold Moment:
In Chapter 3, Kathy and her Hailsham peers devise a scheme to force Madame to acknowledge them. Her attitude towards the children is a mystery Kathy endeavors to solve; but the answers Kathy receives to her questions are entirely unsatisfactory. Madame recoils from Kathy and her classmates, regarding them with a mix of fear and distaste the young children do not understand. Kathy uses a simile to describe Madame's response:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[T]here are people out there, like Madame, who don’t hate you or wish you any harm, but who nevertheless shudder at the very thought of you . . . . The first time you glimpse yourself through the eyes of a person like that, it’s a cold moment. It’s like walking past a mirror you’ve walked past every day of your life, and suddenly it shows you something else, something troubling and strange.
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Explanation and Analysis—Spiders:
In Chapter 3, Ruth's theory is proven true: as the Hailsham students rush at Madame to garner some kind of reaction from her, the older woman recoils in fear. Kathy utilizes a simile in the following passage to characterize this interaction between Madame and the Hailsham children:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Ruth had been right: Madame was afraid of us. But she was afraid of us in the same way someone might be afraid of spiders. We hadn’t been ready for that. It had never occurred to us to wonder how we would feel, being seen like that, being the spiders.
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Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Pencil Case:
In the following passage from Chapter 5, Kathy describes a past conflict she had with Ruth over the Miss Geraldine kidnapping plot. This conflict represents the first significant time Kathy is "snubbed" by another girl in her social circle, at which point she is treated to petty, underhanded jabs and passive aggression. Kathy describes the effect of this conflict using simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+This might sound a pretty innocuous sort of response, but actually it was like she’d suddenly got up and hit me, and for the next few moments I felt hot and chilly at the same time. I knew exactly what she’d meant by her answer and smile: she was claiming the pencil case was a gift from Miss Geraldine.
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Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Fantasy:
In the following passage from Chapter 6, Kathy reflects on her and her Hailsham peers' childhood fantasies about Norfolk. They believed that all lost things would eventually end up in the seaside town, destined to one day be found again. Kathy contemplates this fantasy, acknowledging her youthful imagination through simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+This might all sound daft, but you have to remember that to us, at that stage in our lives, any place beyond Hailsham was like a fantasy land; we had only the haziest notions of the world outside and about what was and wasn’t possible there.
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Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Day and Night:
In the following excerpt from Chapter 7, Kathy meditates on her final years at Hailsham, which she perceives as a "more serious" time. She utilizes a simile to describe this period in her life:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But those last years feel different. They weren't unhappy exactly — I’ve got plenty of memories I treasure from them — but they were more serious, and in some ways darker. Maybe I’ve exaggerated it in my mind, but I’ve got an impression of things changing rapidly around then, like day moving into night.
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Chapter 21
Explanation and Analysis—Test Question:
In the following excerpt from Chapter 21, Madame responds to Kathy and Tommy's inquiries about the Gallery. The former Hailsham affiliate responds to the couple's escapist fantasy with surprise and derision. Kathy describes this response using a simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"You believe this? That you're deeply in love? And therefore you've come to me for . . . this deferral? Why? Why did you come to me?" [. . .] She'd asked it almost like it was a test question she knew the answer to; as if, even, she'd taken other couples through an identical routine many times before.
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