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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 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Prologue: The Woman in the Photograph
Explanation and Analysis—New York City Street:
In explaining the fundamentals of cell biology, Rebecca Skloot channels the voice of her former biology professor, Donald Defler. Rather than offering only technical description, she introduces figurative language to make cellular processes vivid and memorable:
The cytoplasm buzzes like a New York City street. It’s crammed full of molecules and vessels endlessly shuttling enzymes and sugars from one part of the cell to another, pumping water, nutrients, and oxygen in and out of the cell.
Explanation and Analysis—Fried Egg:
Early in the book, Skloot introduces readers to the basics of cell biology through the voice of her former biology professor, Donald Defler. By filtering scientific explanation through his classroom lecture, she grounds complex information in a familiar, almost conversational setting. Here, Skloot uses figurative language to make the invisible structure of a cell more tangible to a general audience. The simile compares a human cell to a fried egg, mapping its two most visible parts—the cytoplasm and the nucleus—onto the egg’s white and yolk:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Under the microscope, a cell looks a lot like a fried egg: It has a white (the cytoplasm) that’s full of water and proteins to keep it fed, and a yolk (the nucleus) that holds all the genetic information that makes you you.
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Chapter 4: The Birth of HeLa
Explanation and Analysis—Cement Mixer:
In this moment, Rebecca Skloot explains George Gey’s key invention, the “roller-tube culturing technique,” which allowed cell cultures to thrive by mimicking the motion of bodily fluids. After Henrietta’s tissue samples are placed inside, the device begins its slow, steady turning. To clarify the mechanism for readers, Skloot introduces a vivid comparison that turns a technical description into a recognizable image. The simile likens the roller drum to a cement mixer, emphasizing both its physical appearance and its ceaseless, churning motion:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It involved a large wooden roller drum, a cylinder with holes for special test tubes called roller tubes. The drum, which Gey called the “whirligig,” turned like a cement mixer twenty-four hours a day, rotating so slowly it made only two full turns an hour, sometimes less.
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Explanation and Analysis—A Flower:
Rebecca Skloot describes how George Gey and his mentor, Warren Lewis, used an early camera to capture the nearly imperceptible process of cell division. Because the growth was too slow for the naked eye to observe, they turned to time-lapse photography, projecting hours of development in just minutes. To explain this innovation, Skloot turns to a simile that translates abstract science into recognizable images:
Unlock with LitCharts A+With that camera, Gey and his mentor, Warren Lewis, filmed the growth of cells, a process so slow — like the growth of a flower — the naked eye couldn’t see it. They played the film at high speed so they could watch cell division on the screen in one smooth motion, like a story unfolding in a flip book.
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Explanation and Analysis—Steak:
Rebecca Skloot describes the indifference with which Mary Kubicek, George Gey’s assistant, first handled Henrietta Lacks’s tissue sample. At this point, no human cells had ever survived long in culture, and years of failure had left Kubicek weary and skeptical. Her routine work with Henrietta’s sample reflects not excitement but exhaustion. The simile comparing dead tissue to “gristle from a steak” makes a technical process tangible through a familiar, physical action:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But she was tired of cell culture, tired of meticulously cutting away dead tissue like gristle from a steak, tired of having cells die after hours of work. Why bother? she thought.
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Chapter 5: Blackness Be Spreadin All Inside
Explanation and Analysis—Crabgrass:
At this point in the narrative, Henrietta Lacks has returned home after treatment, keeping house and spending time with her children. While she remains unaware of what is happening in the lab, her cells are rapidly spreading. Skloot juxtaposes Henrietta’s domestic life with the scientific breakthrough her cells have made possible. In explaining the scale and relentlessness of HeLa’s growth, Skloot turns to the figurative language of a simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+As HeLa grew like crabgrass in laboratories around the world, a virologist named Chester Southam had a frightening thought: What if Henrietta’s cancer cells could infect the scientists working on them? Gey and several others had already shown that some rats grew tumors when injected with live HeLa. Why not humans?
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Chapter 12: The Storm
Explanation and Analysis—Strap Molasses:
Henrietta Lacks’s funeral takes place under an ominous sky. As her coffin is lowered into the earth, Skloot notes a dramatic shift in the weather, connecting natural imagery to the grief of the moment. The description gains further weight from what readers already know: even in death, Henrietta’s body was exploited for research, her tissue samples taken without her consent. The simile compares the darkened sky to strap molasses, intensifying the heaviness of the scene:
Unlock with LitCharts A+As Cliff and Fred lowered Henrietta’s coffin into her grave and began covering her with handfuls of dirt, the sky turned black as strap molasses.
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Chapter 35: Soul Cleansing
Explanation and Analysis—Rain:
Rebecca Skloot depicts an intense weather shift as Gary Lacks prays over Deborah, calling upon the Holy Spirit to bring her comfort. The natural world responds with sudden force: rain turns to hail, pounding against the tin roof so loudly that it resembles a crowd clapping. Deborah, momentarily freed from her anguish, stands with Skloot and Gary at the door, while Gary interprets the storm as a sign of divine recognition. The simile that equates hail to applause is central to the scene’s meaning. By comparing the natural sound to a celebratory human gesture, Skloot transforms the storm into a symbolic affirmation:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It had been drizzling outside for hours, but suddenly rain pounded the tin roof and turned to hail so loud that it sounded like applause. The three of us walked to the front door to look. “It’s the Lord saying he heard us,” Gary said, smiling.
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