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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
Key Examples in Paul’s Case
Part 1
Explanation and Analysis—The Christmas Pantomime:
In the following excerpt, Cather connects Paul’s desires to some imagined, mythical world, using simile to describe the building the German soloist enters as a “fairy world” seen only in a “Christmas pantomime”:
There it was, what he wanted—tangibly before him, like the fairy world of a Christmas pantomime; as the rain beat in his face, Paul wondered whether he were destined always to shiver in the black night outside, looking up at it.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Paul's Spirit:
Throughout the text, figurative language is used to connect Paul to the mystical, fantastical fairy-tale landscape of his imagination. When Cather first describes Paul's reaction to music in the text, she uses one such simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It was not that symphonies, as such, meant anything in particular to Paul, but the first sigh of the instruments seemed to free some hilarious and potent spirit within him; something that struggled there like the genie in the bottle found by the Arab fisherman.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Paul's Otherworldliness:
In the following excerpt, the narrator describes the schoolmaster’s reaction to Paul’s face as he sleeps. Using language that further sets Paul apart from his peers, Cather employs simile to liken Paul's face to that of an old man’s:
Unlock with LitCharts A+One warm afternoon the boy had gone to sleep at his drawing-board, and his master had noted with amazement what a white, blue-veined face it was; drawn and wrinkled like an old man’s about the eyes, the lips twitching even in his sleep.
Related Themes:
