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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
Chapter 1: A Gathering
Explanation and Analysis—Mice and Lizards:
At the dinner party in Chapter 1 at Captain Tiago's house, Rizal describes some women who do not seem to be enjoying the function. They are very quiet, which Rizal describes using a simile:
The woman's group is composed of a few young ladies, Filipinas and Spaniards: they open their mouths to stifle a yawn, but immediately cover them with their fans; they barely whisper a few words, and any ventured conversation dies in monosyllables, like the nocturnal sounds of mice and lizards one hears in a house.
Explanation and Analysis—Like Tortoises:
Chapter 1 describes a fancy dinner party at the home of Captain Tiago. The narrator takes great pains to describe Tiago's house in detail. Rizal describes why he does so, even against his better judgement, in a simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+If it were up to me, I would spare you a description of the house, but it is too important. We mortals are, in general, like tortoises: we value and classify ourselves according to our shells; but the people of the Philippines are like tortoises in other ways as well.
Related Themes:
Chapter 7: Idyll on a Terrace
Explanation and Analysis—That Dazzling Light:
In Chapter 7, Ibarra and María Clara meet for the first time in the novel. At this point they are, as the narrator describes, "a loving couple." The narrator describes their eye contact when they meet:
Unlock with LitCharts A+What did those two souls say to each other? What was exchanged in the language of their eyes, more perfect than their lips, the language afforded the soul so that no sound disturbs an ecstasy of feeling? In these moments, when the thoughts of two happy beings meld through their pupils, words move slowly, coarsely, weakly, like the raspy, awkward noise of thunder from that dazzling light that appears after the quickness of the flash.
Chapter 40: Right and Might
Explanation and Analysis—Phantasms From Space:
In the great fireworks show on the final evening of the festival, in Chapter 40, people stand on rooftops to prevent fires. Rizal describes these people's dangerous job, seen from across the city in the dark, using a simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It would be ten at night. The final rockets rise lazily into the dark sky, where they shine brightly like new stars. A few paper balloons went up a moment ago, thanks to the smoke and sultry air. Some, fireworks attached, burst into flames and menace all the houses, so one still sees on the rooftops men armed with long bamboo poles with a cloth on their ends, and equipped with buckets of water. Their black silhouettes stand in sharp relief in the air's hazy light and seem like phantasms come down from space to attend man's festivities.
Related Themes:
Chapter 45: The Persecuted
Explanation and Analysis—Tree Shorn of its Limbs:
In Chapter 45, Elías meets an old man in the forest named Captain Pablo, a haggard traveler. Pablo explains how his daughter was raped by a minister and how his family unraveled in the aftermath. Pablo uses a simile to describe these events:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I had two sons and one daughter, a home, a fortune. I benefited from respect and esteem. But now I'm like a tree shorn of its limbs, a wandering fugitive, hunted like a wild animal in the forest, and everything that goes along with it. And why? Because a man undid my daughter, because her brothers demanded this man make restitution, and because the man's station was above everyone else's, with the title of God's minister.
Related Themes:
