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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
Book 1, Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Four Quick Knocks:
After murdering the Arab man on the beach, Meursault immediately uses a simile to describe the four shots he shoots after the first one:
Then I fired four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace. And it was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Nothing But Stones:
When Meursault first sees the group of Arab men allegedly following Raymond, he uses a simile to describe how they stare:
Unlock with LitCharts A+We were just about to leave when all of a sudden Raymond motioned to me to look across the street. I saw a group of Arabs leaning against the front of the tobacconist’s shop. They were staring at us in silence, but in that way of theirs, as if we were nothing but stones or dead trees.
Related Themes:
Book 2, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Familiar Paths:
As Meursault reflects on the differences between his life pre- and post-trial, he uses a simile to describe the ease with which his life changed forever:
What awaited me back then was always a night of easy, dreamless sleep. And yet something had changed, since it was back to my cell that I went to wait for the next day […] as if familiar paths traced in summer skies could lead as easily to prison as to the sleep of the innocent.
Related Themes:
Book 2, Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Dead Man:
After the chaplain insists on meeting with Meursault despite him wishing otherwise, Meursault compares the chaplain's life to that of a dead man through a simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+He wasn’t even sure he was alive, because he was living like a dead man. Whereas it looked as if I was the one who’d come up emptyhanded. But I was sure about me, about everything, surer than he could ever be, sure of my life and sure of the death I had waiting for me. [...] at least I had as much of a hold on it as it had on me.
Related Themes:
