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Setting
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 3
Explanation and Analysis—A Religious Ritual :
At school, Toru and Naoko begin walking together every Sunday morning. In Chapter 3, Toru uses a simile to compare these walks to a religious ritual:
We kept walking all over Tokyo in the same undirected way, climbing hills, crossing rivers and rail lines, just walking and walking with no destination in mind. We forged straight ahead, as if our walking were a religious ritual meant to heal our wounded spirits.
These walks are ostensibly dates—Toru and Naoko like each other, and their friendship becomes a complicated and somewhat dysfunctional romantic relationship. But they are seeking something beyond romance from each other, too. Naoko and Toru share the trauma of Kizuki’s suicide. He was Naoko’s boyfriend and Toru’s best friend. They don’t need to talk about it to know that they understand what the other is going through. By describing these walks as a religious ritual, Toru emphasizes this element of their relationship. They seek a fundamental healing or salvation from each other. What others might look to God for, they look to each other for. But Naoko and Toru ultimately can’t save each other. They both knew Kizuki, but experiences are different, and their relationship is rife with miscommunication and misunderstanding. They cannot escape the trauma of his death—which eventually causes Naoko to kill herself.
Related Themes:
Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Smells Like Life:
When Toru is in the hospital with Midori’s father in Chapter 7, he tries to convince him to eat by talking up how good the cucumbers he’s eating are, using a simile to do so:
Fresh, simple, smells like life. Really good cucumbers. A far more sensible food than kiwifruit.
In this scene, Midori has been unable to get her father to eat anything at all. She scoffed when she saw that her sister packed cucumbers:
[I]f she had thought about it she would have realized that cucumbers couldn’t be right. I mean, what’s a hospital patient supposed to do? Sit in bed chewing on raw cucumbers?
But by enjoying the cucumber himself, Toru is able to convince Midori’s dad that he wants some, too. As he convinces him, Toru says that the cucumbers “[smell] like life.” Life, of course, is not something with one discernible scent. But by using this simile, Toru puts the cucumbers in opposition to death. Eventually, Midori’s dad eats full cucumbers on his own, showing more vitality than at any other point in the novel.
Midori is typically more lively than Toru. But here, Toru is able to keep Midori’s father alive, and Midori isn’t. Typically, Toru’s life is characterized by the compelling pull of death. But in this moment, Toru actively pulls someone away from death and toward life. The cucumber shows his ability to resist death—which readers will see again when he comes to accept that life is worth living.
Related Themes:
