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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 Left Hand of Darkness
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Truth:
In the following excerpt from the very beginning of Chapter 1, Genly provides his personal philosophy about anthropological observation and storytelling. He utilizes simile in this philosophizing:
I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination. The soundest fact may fail or prevail in the style of its telling: like that singular organic jewel of our seas, which grows brighter as one woman wears it and, worn by another, dulls and goes to dust. Facts are no more solid, coherent, round, and real than pearls are. But both are sensitive.
Related Themes:
Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Mobilization:
In the following passage from Chapter 5, Genly conveys some of his observations about Gethenian society, all of which are infused with his distinct bias. He uses a simile to juxtapose his own society with Karhide's, providing a flawed, gendered framework through which to consider the subjects of his study:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[O]n Gethen nothing led to war. Quarrels, murders, feuds, forays, vendettas, assassinations, tortures and abominations, all these were in their repertory of human accomplishments; but they did not go to war. They lacked, it seemed, the capacity to mobilize. They behaved like animals, in that respect; or like women. They did not behave like men, or ants.
Related Themes:
