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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 2
Explanation and Analysis—Detachment:
In Chapter 2, Ashima must rush to the hospital to deliver baby Gogol. Once the doctors deliver Gogol, Ashoke and Ashima both utilize the same simile to describe their new son:
When Ashoke arrives, Patty is taking Ashima's blood pressure, and Ashima is reclining against a pile of pillows, the child wrapped like an oblong white parcel in her arms. [...] Ashoke lifts the minuscule parcel higher, closer to his chest.
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Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Shedding Time:
In Chapter 4, Gogol and his sister must contend with cultural upset as they move from America, temporarily to India, and back again. In the following passage, the Ganguli family returns from India to arrive back in suburban New England. For Gogol this homecoming is relieving—he is eager to shed the time spent in his parents' home country for America's familiar comforts. To address Gogol's feelings (and to a certain extent, his sister's), Lahiri compares the memories of his time spent in India to clothing, shed conveniently when he no longer has occasion to "wear" them:
Unlock with LitCharts A+And so the eight months are put behind them, quickly shed, quickly forgotten, like clothes worn for a special occasion, or for a season that has passed, suddenly cumbersome, irrelevant to their lives.
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Explanation and Analysis—Scratchy Tag:
In Chapter 4, Gogol expresses increasing aversion to his name and cultural traditions, experiencing a greater affinity with American culture as he grows into adolescence and young adulthood. In the following passage, Lahiri uses simile to describe Gogol's relationship with his own name, comparing it to a physical source of irritation:
Unlock with LitCharts A+At times [Gogol's] name, an entity shapeless and weightless, manages nevertheless to distress him physically, like the scratchy tag of a shirt he has been forced permanently to wear. At times he wishes he could disguise it, shorten it somehow.
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Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Acting in a Play:
In Chapter 5, Gogol reflects on his decision to abandon "Gogol" for "Nikhil" once he moves away to college, a choice equivalent to abandoning one character to play another. Gogol has never felt like "Gogol," but "Nikhil" is certainly not an authentic representation of Gogol's identity, either. In the following passage, Lahiri uses simile to contend with this identity crisis:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[A]fter eighteen years of Gogol, two months of Nikhil feel scant, inconsequential. At times he feels as if he’s cast himself in a play, acting the part of twins, indistinguishable to the naked eye yet fundamentally different.
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Chapter 12
Explanation and Analysis—Building Collapse:
In the following passage from Chapter 12, Gogol reflects back on his relationship with Moushumi, recently collapsed due to their incompatibility and her infidelity. He takes the time to compare his relationship to his profession, using simile to relate the two in an attempt to make sense of his current circumstances:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It is as if a building he’d been responsible for designing had collapsed for all to see. And yet he can’t really blame her. They had both acted on the same impulse, that was their mistake. They had both sought comfort in each other, in their shared world, perhaps for the sake of novelty, or out of fear
that that world was slowly dying.
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Explanation and Analysis—Time and Names:
In the following passage from Chapter 12, Lahiri uses simile to relate Gogol and Moushumi's relationship to naming—a central theme in the novel.
Unlock with LitCharts A+His time with her seems like a permanent part of him that no longer has any relevance, or currency. As if that time were a name he’d ceased to use.
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