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Simile
Explanation and Analysis—Jack the Hunter:
In Chapter 3, Jack tries to track down pigs to hunt, and the narrator uses similes to describe the action:
Jack was bent double. He was down like a sprinter, his nose only a few inches from the humid earth. The tree trunks and the creepers that festooned them lost themselves in a green dusk thirty feet above him, and all about was the undergrowth. There was only the faintest indication of a trail here; a cracked twig and what might be the impression of one side of a hoof. He lowered his chin and stared at the traces as though he would force them to speak to him. Then dog-like, uncomfortably on all fours yet unheeding his discomfort, he stole forward five yards and stopped.
This series of similes first compares Jack to a sprinter. The second tells us that Jack stares as if he would force the hoofprints to reveal where the pig had gone. Finally, the paragraph compares him to a dog, complete with the image of the boy on all fours. These similes do a lot of quick, subtle characterization of Jack.
The sprinter simile illustrates that Jack uses his athletic power and confidence to achieve his goals. He also sees the hunting (of both pigs and, later, the other boys) as a game or competition, and the sprinter comparison serves to emphasize this. Just as Jack interrupts, makes demands, and relies on force throughout the rest of the book, here he even tries to demand something of the hoofprints. Finally, he's compared to an animal, and specifically a dog. This scene shows that Jack adapts almost too well to the wilderness of the island—perhaps the island is making him more animalistic, like a hunting dog that tracks down prey without pausing to consider why.
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