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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 4
Explanation and Analysis—Desolate Island:
In Chapter 4, during his brief stint as a sugar planter in Brazil, Robinson begins to itch for adventure again. After being taken as a slave in Sallee, he has already had a taste of how horribly a life at sea can go for him. Nonetheless, he longs for a more exciting life. He also feels dissatisfied because he appears to be reaching exactly the middle station that his father had wanted for him—and so he feels like he might as well be living comfortably in England than in a foreign, far-off lace where he lacks family and friends. He uses a simile to describe his emotions:
I used to look upon my condition with the utmost regret. I had no body to converse with but now and then this neighbour; no work to be done, but by the labour of my hands; and I used to say, I liv'd just like a man cast away upon some desolate island, that had no body there but himself. But how just has it been, and how should all men reflect, that when they compare their present conditions with others that are worse, Heaven may oblige them to make the exchange.
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Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Difficult Decisions:
In the April section of his journal, Robinson describes the work he did following the earthquake. He wants to move his house, but does not know how. Describing his drawn-out brainstorming and decision-making processes, Robinson uses a simple to compare himself to a statesman and judge:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[...] this cost me as much thought as a statesman would have bestow'd upon a grand point of politicks, or a judge upon the life and death of a man.
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Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis—Ultimate Contentment:
In his 23rd year on the island, Robinson finds that he is quite happy with his solitary, self-sufficient existence. He has figured out how to live there so well that he prefers living on his island over living anywhere else—at least if he discounts the "savages." To express this contentment, he uses a simile in which he likens himself to an old goat that he found in the cave behind his forest abode:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I was now in my twenty third year of residence in this island, and was so naturaliz'd to the place, and to the manner of living, that could I have but enjoy'd the certainty that no savages would come to the place to disturb me, I could have been content to have capitulated for spending the rest of my time there, even to the last moment, till I had laid me down and dy'd, like the old goat in the cave.
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