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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 1
Explanation and Analysis—Like Crows:
As Arthur collapses onto the stage during King Lear, Mandel uses a simile comparing the medics to crows to show that this moment is very bad news indeed:
The ambulance had arrived, a pair of medics approaching through the absurdly still-falling snow, and then they were upon the fallen actor like crows, a man and a woman in dark uniforms crowding Jeevan aside, the woman so young she could’ve passed as a teenager.
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Explanation and Analysis—Broken Bird:
As Arthur collapses onto the stage in King Lear, Mandel uses foreshadowing and a simile to create uncertainty around what’s happening to him, blurring the line between performance and reality:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"Down from the waist they are Centaurs," he said, and not only was this the wrong line but the delivery was wheezy, his voice barely audible. He cradled his hand to his chest like a broken bird. The actor portraying Edgar was watching him closely. It was still possible at that moment that Arthur was acting, but in the first row of the orchestra section a man was rising from his seat.
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Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Neutron Bomb:
When describing the lost years between the flu outbreak and people re-settling into communities, the author uses similes to emphasize the scale and suddenness of the pandemic’s destruction:
Unlock with LitCharts A+There was the flu that exploded like a neutron bomb over the surface of the earth and the shock of the collapse that followed, the first unspeakable years when everyone was traveling, before everyone caught on that there was no place they could walk to where life continued as it had before and settled wherever they could, clustered close together for safety in truck stops and former restaurants and old motels.
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Chapter 12
Explanation and Analysis—Avenging Angel:
To the Prophet, mass death from pandemics is always proof of mankind’s moral failure. As he explains this, he uses personification and a simile to frame the Georgia Flu as an unstoppable force sent from god to punish the wicked:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The flus came every season, but these were weak, inefficient viruses that struck down only the very old, the very young, and the very sick. And then came a virus like an avenging angel, unsurvivable, a microbe that reduced the population of the fallen world [...].
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Chapter 15
Explanation and Analysis—Party Diorama:
Miranda has to make a brief escape from the claustrophobic dinner party Arthur is throwing, running outside to take their dog out and hiding in the shadow of the house. The author uses a simile comparing the glowing scene she can see through the windows to a diorama to show her detachment from the scene.
Unlock with LitCharts A+Could she possibly go around to the front of the house, sneak in the front door and up to her studio unnoticed, then text Arthur to say that she has a headache? She steps away from the glass, toward the center of the lawn where the shadows are deepest. From here the dinner party looks like a diorama, white walls and golden light and glamorous people.
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