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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
Key Examples in Sonny’s Blues
Similes
Explanation and Analysis—Climber Sonny:
After years of not being in contact, the narrator decides to write to his brother Sonny in prison. In Sonny’s letter back to the narrator, he uses a simile to capture how much hearing from the narrator meant to him:
You don’t know how much I needed to hear from you. I wanted to write you many a time but I dug how much I must have hurt you and so I didn’t write. But now I feel like a man who’s been trying to climb up out of some deep, real deep and funky hole and just saw the sun up there, outside. I got to get outside.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Chasm or Bridge:
When the narrator goes to meet Sonny after he is released from prison, he uses a metaphor to describe the emotional distance between them, as seen in the following passage:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[Sonny] was smiling all over his face. “It’s good to see you again.”
“It’s good to see you.”
The seven years’ difference in our ages lay between us like a chasm: I wondered if these years would ever operate between us as a bridge.
Related Themes:
