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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
Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—City Life:
In Chapter 6, the narrator arrives in New York and uses a simile to foreshadow the dangerous life he will live at the "Club":
My blood ran quicker, and I felt that I was just beginning to live. To some natures this stimulant of life in a great city becomes a thing as binding and necessary as opium is to one addicted to the habit. It becomes their breath of life; they cannot exist outside of it; rather than be deprived of it they are content to suffer hunger, want, pain and misery; they would not exchange even a ragged and wretched condition among the great crowd for any degree of comfort away from it.
The narrator compares the effects of life in a city like New York to the effects of opium on somebody who is addicted to it. He describes the physiological rush he feels when he moves there, as though he is trying a new drug that he might come to depend on. While he first describes the feeling as "the breath of life," he goes on to describe the darker sides of addiction to the city. Like opium, the city produces cravings that drive people to put up with "hunger, want, pain and misery" if only they can continue living there. Even the promise of a comfortable place to live outside the city would not be worth the exchange.
The narrator is speaking in the third person when he describes these unsavory effects of the city, but he has already admitted that he felt the initial high that leads to dependency. It seems like only a matter of time before he falls into some of the unhealthy patterns he describes. Indeed, that is what happens: he takes up gambling and spends all his time at the "Club." While he is able to develop his expertise on ragtime while he is there, he also nearly dies when the rich widow's companion pulls out a gun in a jealous rage. The narrator only leaves when the millionaire promises him travel to even greater cities, such as Paris and London.
Related Themes:
