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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 5
Explanation and Analysis—Like Insects:
Steinbeck uses a simile that compares tractors to insects when describing the profound changes brought to Oklahoma by mechanized farming:
The tractors came over the roads and into the fields, great crawlers moving like insects, having the incredible strength of insects. They crawled over the ground, laying the track and rolling on it and picking it up. Diesel tractors, puttering while they stood idle; they thundered when they moved, and then settled down to a droning roar. Snub-nosed monsters, raising the dust and sticking their snouts into it, straight down the country, across the country, through fences, through dooryards, in and out of gullies in straight lines. They did not run on the ground, but on their own roadbeds.
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Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Ghost:
After spotting Tom and Casy near the Joads' former family home in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, Muley describes how he has been living since his family left Oklahoma, describing himself in a simile as a “graveyard ghos’”:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Somepin went an’ happened to me when they tol’ me I had to get off the place. Fust I was gonna go in an’ kill a whole flock a people. Then all my folks all went away out west. An’ I got wanderin’ aroun’. Jus’ walkin’ aroun’. Never went far. Slep’ wherever I was. I was gonna sleep here tonight. That’s why I come. I’d tell myself, ‘I’m lookin’ after things so when all the folks come back it’ll be all right.’ But I knowed that wan’t true. [...] I’m jus’ wanderin’ aroun’ like a damn ol’ graveyard ghos’.’’
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Explanation and Analysis—Like a Weasel :
When Tom and Casy chat with Muley about his life since his family left Oklahoma, Muley uses a series of similes related to local animals. When Tom is surprised to see that Muley is hiding from the police, noting that he was never a “run-an’-hide fella,” Muley states that:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I was mean like a wolf. Now I’m mean like a weasel. When you’re huntin’ somepin you’re a hunter, an’ you’re strong. Can’t nobody beat a hunter. But when you get hunted—that’s different. Somepin happens to you. You ain’t strong; maybe you’re fierce, but you ain’t strong. I been hunted now for a long time. I ain’t a hunter no more. I’d maybe shoot a fella in the dark, but I don’t maul nobody with a fence stake no more. It don’t do no good to fool you or me. That’s how it is.
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Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Goddess:
When first introducing Ma Joad, a major character in the novel, Steinbeck uses a simile that compares her to a goddess. Noting her central role in the family, Steinbeck writes:
Unlock with LitCharts A+And from her great and humble position in the family she had taken dignity and a clean calm beauty. From her position as healer, her hands had grown sure and cool and quiet; from her position as arbiter she had become as remote and faultless in judgment as a goddess. She seemed to know that if she swayed the family shook, and if she ever really deeply wavered or despaired the family would fall, the family will to function would be gone.
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Chapter 30
Explanation and Analysis—Like Machines:
After days of heavy rain, the rising waters threaten to flood the boxcars where the Joads and other families live. Fearing for Rose of Sharon, who is due to give birth, Pa Joad convinces the other men in the boxcars to help build a dam to protect the boxcars, despite their initial reluctance. Describing the intense labor of the men, Steinbeck uses a simile that compares them to machines.
Unlock with LitCharts A+The stream rose slowly up the side of the new wall, and tore at the willow mat. “Higher!’’ Pa cried. “We got to git her higher!’’ The evening came, and the work went on. And now the men were beyond weariness. Their faces were set and dead. They worked jerkily, like machines. When it was dark the women set lanterns in the car doors, and kept pots of coffee handy. And the women ran one by one to the Joad car and wedged themselves inside.
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