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Simile
Explanation and Analysis—Like Doves:
Because she’s unused to being around other people, Kya does her best to remain unnoticed while the other children practice phonics during her one day at school in Barkley Cove. In this passage the author uses simile and auditory imagery to show how uncomfortable and isolated Kya feels:
Kya sat down fast in her seat at the back of the room, trying to disappear like a bark beetle blending into the furrowed trunk of an oak. Yet nervous as she was, as the teacher continued the lesson, she leaned forward, waiting to learn what came after twenty-nine. So far all Miss Arial had talked about was something called phonics, and the students, their mouths shaped like O’s, echoed her sounds of ah, aa, o, and u, all of them moaning like doves.
The simile “like a bark beetle blending into the furrowed trunk of an oak” compares Kya to an insect using camouflage to hide from predators. Even though she can’t actually camouflage herself like an insect might, Kya is hunkering down "fast" in her seat to try and stay invisible among the other children. However, her usual way of hiding in the swamp does not work in this unfamiliar environment.
The auditory imagery of this scene fills the room with the vowel sounds “ah, aa, o, and u.” The students’ voices create a rhythmic, constant background noise. Eventually, to Kya’s untrained ear, the vowels lose their distinction and the children sound as though they are “moaning like doves.” This second simile turns the lesson’s sounds into something sorrowful rather than exciting. Because Kya feels so left out, the noises of the phonics lesson seem like the sounds animals make rather than human speech. There's nothing for her to learn here, apart from that she never wants to come back.
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