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Simile
Explanation and Analysis—Laying Large Eggs:
A pair of similes appears during Olanna and Odenigbo’s wedding ceremony in Part 2, Chapter 18. Before the newlyweds even have a chance to cut the cake, planes fly low and set the neighborhood to waste. The guests duck for cover, and Ugwu briefly glances up at the sky:
Ugwu looked up and saw the planes, gliding low beneath the blue sky like two birds of prey. They spurted hundreds of scattered bullets before dark balls rolled out from underneath, as if the planes were laying large eggs.
Here, the figurative devices call attention to war’s perversity. The first simile likens planes to “birds of prey.” But the second introduces vaguely sexual terms as it imagines the hundred-ton machines of destruction “laying large eggs.” Almost like insects, the planes “[spurt]” out their bullets while “dark balls” roll out from beneath them. They become strange, terrifying beings who reproduce through the act of destruction.
Such a pairing of life and death leaves a haunting impression. What would otherwise be an act of creation—laying eggs—gets twisted into something eerily sinister as bodies blacken and houses crumble below the planes. In this scene where the forces of creation and destruction intertwine, the apparent promise of life merely spells tragic ruin.
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