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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
Book 1, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Fleabitings:
As yet another means of emphasizing the extent to which he and his fellow Puritans were persecuted for their faith in England, Bradford includes the following simile in Book 1, Chapter 1:
After the events referred to above, they were not long permitted to remain in peace. They were hunted and persecuted on every side, until their former afflictions were but as fleabitings in comparison.
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Book 1, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Moving to Amsterdam:
In Book 1, Chapter 3, Bradford describes the Puritans' flight from England to Holland, detailing the initial shock they received upon arriving in Amsterdam. Describing this transition, Bradford employs figurative language—including personification and smile—as a means of emphasizing the plight faced by his people:
Unlock with LitCharts A+For though they saw fair and beautiful cities, flowing with abundance of all sorts of wealth and riches, it was not long before they saw the grim and grisly face of poverty coming upon them like an armed man, with whom they must buckle and encounter, and from whom they could not fly; but they were armed with faith and patience against him and all his encounters; and though they were sometimes foiled, yet, by God’s assistance, they prevailed and got the victory.
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Book 1, Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Allusion to Proverbs:
In Book 1, Chapter 4, Bradford outlines his second of several reasons that the Leyden congregation uses to justify their removal from Holland to New England. As Bradford details, the congregation feels themselves splintering apart, all whilst being beset on all sides by persecutors who bear them ill will. Alluding to the Bible, Bradford describes the congregation's decision to leave as a calculated risk:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Therefore, according to the divine proverb (Prov. xxii, 3), that a wise man seeth the plague when it cometh, and hideth himself; they, like skillful and hardened soldiers, were wary of being surrounded by their enemies, so that they could neither fight nor flee, and thought it wiser to dislodge betimes to some place of better advantage and less danger, if any such could be found.
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Book 1, Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Ship Conditions:
In the following passage from Book 1, Chapter 5, Bradford outlines with some trepidation the difficulties and sufferings undertaken by those who attempt the Atlantic passage between Europe and America. This passage would become renowned for its manifold discomforts, as Bradford details through the use of simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Mr. Blackwell is dead, and Mr. Maggner, the Captain; in fact Captain Argoll says 130 persons on that ship died out of a total of 180. There were so many that they were packed together like herrings.
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Book 1, Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—A Warning:
In Book 1, Chapter 7, Bradford includes a letter from Mr. John Robinson to the Plymouth settlers, warning them not to assert themselves too much in favor of religious freedom in their applications to the king. In his haste to warn them against stirring the proverbial political pot, Robinson utilizes a simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Further, the plans for your intended civil community will furnish continual occasion of offence, and will be as fuel to the fire, unless you diligently quench it with brotherly forbearance.
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Book 2, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Suffering like Dogs:
In the following passage from Book 2, Chapter 1, Bradford recounts the words of a sailor who, suffering from illness like the rest of the settlers, compares his prior behavior to theirs. This sailor makes use of an apt simile to cast his own behavior in an unfavorable light:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Then he confessed he did not deserve it at their hands, for he had abused them in word and deed. “Oh,” said he, “you I see now, show your love like Christians indeed to one another; but we let one another lie and die like dogs.”
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