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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 White Noise
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Dead Souls Babbling:
In the first chapter of White Noise, the narrator, Jack Gladney, describes his life at home with his wife, Babette, and their four children. Their quiet, suburban life is a recurring theme in the novel. Here Jack describes it using a macabre simile:
Babette and I and our children by previous marriages live at the end of a quiet street in what was once a wooded area with deep ravines. There is an expressway beyond the backyard now, well below us, and at night as we settle into our brass bed the sparse traffic washes past, a remote and steady murmur around our sleep, as of dead souls babbling at the edge of a dream.
Related Themes:
Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—A.K.A. Jack:
In Chapter 4, Jack recalls how his supervisor at the College told him that he would have to change his look in order to "be taken seriously as a Hitler innovator." Jack changes both his name and appearance for his job, and as such he feels as if he is playing a character in his own life. He describes this feeling using a simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[...] the chancellor had advised me, back in 1968, to do something about my name and appearance if I wanted to be taken seriously as a Hitler innovator. Jack Gladney would not do, he said, and asked me what other names I might have at my disposal. We finally agreed that I should invent an extra initial and call myself J. A. K. Gladney, a tag I wore like a borrowed suit.
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Chapter 17
Explanation and Analysis—Like So Much Rain:
In Chapter 17, Jack runs into a colleague from the College while at the hardware store. Jack isn't wearing his glasses, which he usually only wears while at work, and in response the colleague calls his new look "harmless." Jack interprets this as a hurtful jab, and to make himself feel better, he takes himself and his family out shopping. He spends exuberantly, which he describes using a poetic simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The more money I spent, the less important it seemed. I was bigger than these sums. These sums poured off my skin like so much rain. These sums in fact came back to me in the form of existential credit. I felt expansive, inclined to be sweepingly generous, and told the kids to pick out their Christmas gifts here and now.
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Chapter 20
Explanation and Analysis—Water, Metal, Brown Beans:
In Chapter 20, Murray questions Jack on the small amounts of wasted movement and time in his daily activities, like making coffee. Murray thinks that Jack can "save tremendous amounts of time and energy” by living more efficiently. Jack wonders what he should be saving that time for; Murray offers that he can use that time to live longer. But Jack realizes in this moment that he does not want to live longer because he doesn't want to ever live without Babette: "Given a choice between loneliness and death, it would take me a fraction of a second to decide." After this realization, Jack wastes time on purpose to contradict Murray. He watches the coffee maker slowly drip and admires its engineering, describing it using a simile about philosophy:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I watched the coffee bubble up through the center tube and perforated basket into the small pale globe. A marvelous and sad invention, so roundabout, ingenious, human. It was like a philosophical argument rendered in terms of the things of the world—water, metal, brown beans. I had never looked at coffee before.
Related Themes:
Chapter 22
Explanation and Analysis—Wounded Sub:
In Chapter 22, Jack describes the way he lies in bed with Babette. He and his wife have a nightly ritual in which he lies in the same way on her chest. This time, though, Jack needs the comfort of lying with his wife more than ever, having learned of the adverse effects of Nyodene D exposure and fearful for his health. He describes this feeling in a metaphor that turns him into a military vehicle:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Her body became the agency of my resolve, my silence. Nightly I moved toward her breasts, nuzzling into that designated space like a wounded sub into its repair dock. I drew courage from her breasts, her warm mouth, her browsing hands, from the skimming tips of her fingers on my back. The lighter the touch, the more determined I was to keep her from knowing. Only her own desperation could break my will.
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Chapter 34
Explanation and Analysis—Trashy:
In Chapter 33, Jack desperately searches for Babette's Dylar pills, which he feels are the only thing that can help his "symptoms." He tears open the trash bags in search of the bottle and sifts through all the various waste. He describes the pile of trash using a simile that compares it to artwork:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The compressed bulk sat there like an ironic modern sculpture, massive, squat, mocking. I jabbed at it with the butt end of a rake and then spread the material over the concrete floor. I picked through it item by item, mass by shapeless mass, wondering why I felt guilty, a violator of privacy, uncovering intimate and perhaps shameful secrets.
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