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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 14
Explanation and Analysis—She Was the Ball:
At the Vernal Conclave in Chapter 14, Rowan intentionally fails Scythe Curie's initiation question so as not to separate himself and Citra. This causes Scythe Rand to take issue with Faraday having two apprentices who collude with one another. Rand proposes that one of them must glean the other once they become a scythe. The narrator describes Citra's feelings about this unenviable situation using a simile:
“What is your proposal, Scythe Rand?” asked Xenocrates.
“I object!” shouted Faraday.
“You can’t object to something she has not yet said!”
Faraday bit down his objection, and waited. Citra watched, feeling almost detached, as if this were a tennis match and it was match point. But she wasn’t an observer, was she? She was the ball. And so was Rowan.
“I propose,” said Scythe Rand, with the slickness of a deathstalker scorpion, “that upon the confirmation of the winner, the first order of business will be for that winner to glean the loser.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 21
Explanation and Analysis—Blowhole of a Whale:
After a big party at Scythe Goddard's mansion in Chapter 21, he and his assistants turn off Rowan's pain nanites and beat him savagely. They leave his healing nanites on—without them they would have beaten him nearly to death. The scythes call this practice being "jumped in." Rowan recovers, still without pain nanites, an excruciating process. He seems to have been punched in the mouth particularly badly because his lips are still "split and swollen." He describes his pain using a simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Scythe Volta visited him several times a day. He sat with Rowan, spoon-feeding him soup, and blotting where it spilled from his split, swollen lips. [...] “It burns,” he told Volta as the salty soup spilled over his lips. “It does for now,” Volta told him with genuine compassion. “But it will pass, and you’ll be better for it.” “How could I be better for any of this?” he asked, horrified at how distorted and liquid his words sounded, as if he were speaking through the blowhole of a whale.
Related Themes:
Chapter 27
Explanation and Analysis—Acid in the Eye:
Before the Harvest Conclave in Chapter 27, Citra is excited to tell Rowan about her research into Faraday's alleged "murder." But Scythe Curie reminds Citra that bad scythes are usually those who seek notoriety. Curie criticizes Goddard as someone who seeks to "ensnare the world" and warns Citra that Goddard's ways have likely rubbed off on Rowan. Curie describes this nefarious influence with a simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"You see, there are some who seek celebrity to change the world, and others who seek it to ensnare the world. Goddard is of the second kind.” And then she said something that guaranteed Citra many a sleepless night.
“I wouldn’t trust your friend Rowan anymore. Goddard is as corrosive as acid hurled in the eye. The kindest thing you can do is win that ring when Winter Conclave comes, and glean the boy quickly, before that acid burns any deeper than it already has.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 28
Explanation and Analysis—Gone Fishing:
At one of Goddard's lavish parties in Chapter 28, High Blade Xenocrates arrives as a surprise guest. At one point in the party, Xenocrates suddenly jumps in the water. Rowan overhears Goddard forcing Xenocrates to do so, while holding Esme at knifepoint, threatening to glean her on the spot. Xenocrates nearly drowns under the weight of his gold-encrusted cape, but Tyger leaps into the water to save him. As Xenocrates emerges from the water without his usual cloak, he looks much the worse for wear, which the narrator describes in a simile, comparing him to fish:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Now he didn’t look much like a High Blade—he was just a fat man in wet, golden underwear. “I guess I must have lost my balance,” he said, trying to be jovial about it and attempting to put a new spin on what had happened. [...] Chomsky had arrived at the scene, and he and Volta reached down from the pool’s edge to haul Xenocrates out of the water. It was as humiliating as could be for the man. He looked like an overstuffed net of fish being hauled onto the deck of a trawler.
Related Themes:
Chapter 36
Explanation and Analysis—Toning the Hour:
In Chapter 36, Rowan accompanies Scythe Goddard and his crew to a Tonist cloister for a mass gleaning. Goddard and his crew kill indiscriminately, with no regard for the usual ratios of ethnicities or to the yearly gleaning quota. In a fit of righteous rage for this unchecked murder, Rowan kills Goddard and Rand before moving on to Chomsky. Rowan attacks violently and decisively, which the narrator describes using a simile, alluding to Norse mythology:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Chomsky set Rowan’s arm ablaze with the flamethrower, but Rowan rolled on the ground, putting it out, then grabbed the toning mallet from beside the altar and brought it down on Chomsky like the hammer of Thor, striking again and again and again as if he were toning the hour, until the curate grabbed his hand to stop him and said, “That’s enough, son. He’s dead.”
Related Themes:
