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Setting
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
Section 1
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Box Lid:
At the beginning of the story, when setting the scene, the narrator describes what winter is like in Minnesota, using a simile in the process:
In the fall when the days became crisp and gray, and the long Minnesota winter shut down like the white lid of a box, Dexter’s skis moved over the snow that hid the fairways of the golf course. At these times the country gave him a feeling of profound melancholy—it offended him that the links should lie in enforced fallowness, haunted by ragged sparrows for the long season.
Related Themes:
Section 2
Explanation and Analysis—Like the Fly-wheel:
After Judy runs into Dexter on the lake and asks him to drive her boat while she surfs on the waves, they strike up a conversation. The narrator uses a simile to capture Dexter’s emotional reaction in this moment, as seen in the following passage:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“It’s awful cold,” she shouted. “What’s your name?”
He told her.
“Well, why don’t you come to dinner to-morrow night?”
His heart turned over like the fly-wheel of the boat, and, for the second time, her casual whim gave a new direction to his life.
Related Themes:
