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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
Prologue
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Grave:
In describing the “hole” in which he lives after being chased by members of various political factions in New York, the narrator uses both simile and metaphor:
Now don’t jump to the conclusion that because I call my home a “hole” it is damp and cold like a grave; there are cold holes and warm holes. Mine is a warm hole. And remember, a bear retires to his hole for the winter and lives until spring; then he comes strolling out like the Easter chick breaking from its shell. I say all this to assure you that it is incorrect to assume that, because I’m invisible and live in a hole, I am dead. I am neither dead nor in a state of suspended animation.
The small apartment he has carved out for himself in the basement of an all-white building in New York City is not, he claims in a simile, “cold like a grave.” He insists that he is not “dead nor in a state of suspended animation” while living in this subterranean lair. Instead, he uses the metaphor of hibernation. Just as “a bear retires to his hole for the winter and lives until spring,” he feels that he is hibernating in his new abode until the right moment, “like the Easter chick breaking from its shell.” One implication of the narrator’s figurative language is that he intends, like a hibernating animal, to only remain in his burrow temporarily.
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Curse:
Using a simile, the narrator describes his grandfather’s dying words as being “like a curse.” Reflecting upon his own actions as a young man, he states that:
When I was praised for my conduct I felt a guilt that in some way I was doing something that was really against the wishes of the white folks, that if they had understood they would have desired me to act just the opposite, that I should have been sulky and mean, and that that really would have been what they wanted [...] It made me afraid that some day they would look upon me as a traitor and I would be lost. Still I was more afraid to act any other way because they didn’t like that at all. The old man’s words were like a curse.
On his deathbed, the narrator’s grandfather urged his family to covertly oppose white political power, feigning meekness and humility in front of white people while nevertheless planning to sabotage them. Growing up, the narrator behaves in a manner that is acceptable to white people, while nevertheless feeling, due to his grandfather’s words, that his actions were “really against the wishes of the white folks.” Ultimately, he feels confused by his grandfather’s ambiguous legacy, claiming that his “words were like a curse” that would continue to haunt him throughout his adult life.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Baby:
In his description of the torturous battle royal which he is pressured to participate in by a group of locally prominent white men, the narrator uses both simile and imagery:
Blindfolded, I could no longer control my motions. I had no dignity. I stumbled about like a baby or a drunken man. The smoke had become thicker and with each new blow it seemed to sear and further restrict my lungs. My saliva became like hot bitter glue. A glove connected with my head, filling my mouth with warm blood. It was everywhere. I could not tell if the moisture I felt upon my body was sweat or blood [...] Streaks of blue light filled the black world behind the blindfold.
After being blindfolded and forced into the ring with several other young men, the narrator compares himself, in similes, to “a baby” and “a drunken man.” Here, both of these similes imply that he had little control over his own actions, and correspondingly, could not behave in a dignified manner. Here, the narrator also employs rich imagery to describe this painful scene from his past, noting the thick smoke that choked him, the taste and feeling of his own blood, and the “streaks of blue light” which he perceived despite the blindfold. Here, the narrator uses simile and imagery to emphasize the painful chaos of this humiliating ritual.
Related Themes:
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Machine-Tooled Jewelry:
While being chauffeured around the campus by the narrator, Mr. Norton acknowledges that one of his motives for donating to the unnamed historically Black college is to create a monument to his late daughter. The narrator uses a simile to describe the pleasant but old-fashioned clothing worn by Mr. Norton’s daughter in a photo:
She was very beautiful, I thought at the time, so beautiful that I did not know whether I should express admiration to the extent I felt it or merely act polite. And yet I seemed to remember her, or someone like her, in the past. I know now that it was the flowing costume of soft, flimsy material that made for the effect; today, dressed in one of the smart, well-tailored, angular, sterile, streamlined, engine-turned, air-conditioned modern outfits you see in the women’s magazines, she would appear as ordinary as an expensive piece of machine-tooled jewelry and just as lifeless.
Acknowledging that the tragic young woman was “very beautiful,” the narrator suggests that the effect produced by the photo is largely a result of the “flowing costume of soft, flimsy material” that she wore. He then compares this clothing to the “smart, well-tailored, angular, sterile, streamlined, engine-turned, air-conditioned modern outfits” worn by young women in his own time. If she had been dressed in modern clothing, he concludes, she would look “as ordinary as an expensive piece of machine-tooled jewelry.” In this simile, he claims that she would appear as mundane and "lifeless” as mass-produced jewelry if she were dressed in modern fashion.
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Like Gunshots:
The narrator uses a number of similes when describing a chaotic scene at the Golden Day, a seedy bar located near the college campus. A group of patients at a nearby mental hospital who frequent the bar have decided to strike back against the hospital orderly, named Supercargo, who has been assigned to keep them in line, brutally attacking him on the staircase after he attempts to restore order:
Supercargo grabbed wildly at the balustrade as they snatched his feet from beneath him and started down. His head bounced against the steps making a sound like a series of gunshots as they ran dragging him by his ankles, like volunteer firemen running with a hose. The crowd surged forward. Halley yelled near my ear. I saw the man being dragged toward the center of the room.
First, the narrator describes the sound of Supercargo’s head hitting the stairs as being “like a series of gunshots,” a simile that emphasizes the violence of the scene. Next, he describes the crowd of patients as being “like volunteer firemen running with a hose.” There is a degree of irony to this simile, as the patients are not restoring order or performing a public service, but rather creating a dangerous and chaotic scene.
Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Sculptor :
The narrator recounts a conversation with Dr. Bledsoe, president of the unnamed historically Black college that he attended for three years prior to being expelled. Bledsoe demands that the narrator accompany him as he attends to the injured Mr. Norton, a wealthy white donor to the college, and the narrator describes Bledsoe, in a simile, as a sculptor:
“Don’t sit there,” he said. “Come with me!”
Just inside the building I got another shock. As we approached a mirror Dr. Bledsoe stopped and composed his angry face like a sculptor, making it a bland mask, leaving only the sparkle of his eyes to betray the emotion that I had seen only a moment before. He looked steadily at himself for a moment; then we moved quietly down the silent hall and up the stairs.
In their private conversation, Bledsoe is furious at the narrator for allowing Norton to meet a disreputable member of the local Black community, Jim Trueblood, and for taking him to the Golden Day, a bar with a bad reputation for illicit activities. As he prepares to go and meet with Norton, however, Bledsoe “stopped and composed his angry face like a sculptor.” Through this simile, the narrator suggests that Bledsoe is something of a skilled performer, carefully controlling his emotions in order to appeal to the rich trustee. The narrator further describes Bledsoe’s face as a “blank mask” which leaves no trace of his anger other than “the sparkle of his eyes,” further contributing to the sense that Bledsoe and others at the college are like actors who perform for the benefit of their white donors.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Like an Alien Thing:
The narrator uses a simile that compares the wheel of a car to an “alien thing” after the chaotic and disorienting scene at the Golden Day bar. Driving Mr. Norton, the wealthy white college trustee, back to campus after he was attacked and later revived by members of a group of patients from a nearby mental hospital, the narrator states that:
The wheel felt like an alien thing in my hands as I followed the white line of the highway. Heat rays from the late afternoon sun arose from the gray concrete, shimmering like the weary tones of a distant bugle blown upon still midnight air. In the mirror I could see Mr. Norton staring out vacantly upon the empty fields, his mouth stern, his white forehead livid where it had scraped the screen. And seeing him I felt the fear balled coldly within me unfold. What would happen now? What would the school officials say?
The narrator is terrified that he will be punished by the school officials for exposing Mr. Norton to danger and to unflattering images of Black life in the South. Though he finds himself back in the well-known and comforting environment of the college campus, he nevertheless feels that something has shifted in his own perception. The familiar wheel of the car that he drives in his capacity as a chauffeur now feels “like an alien thing” to him, a simile that suggests that he is now looking at his surroundings with new eyes, due to his fears but also perhaps as a result of what he has learned at the Golden Day.
Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—A Frantic Whale:
Dr. Bledsoe, president of the unnamed Black college, sends the narrator to work in New York for the summer, though he secretly plans to expel him permanently. Upon experiencing the train in New York City for the first time, the narrator uses a simile and allusion to describe the busy and disorienting scene:
The train seemed to plunge downhill now, only to lunge to a stop that shot me out upon a platform feeling like something regurgitated from the belly of a frantic whale. Wrestling with my bags, I swept along with the crowd, up the stairs into the hot street. I didn’t care where I was, I would walk the rest of the way.
Having been raised in the rural South, the narrator has never experienced a large, industrialized city before. Exiting a train that is densely packed with both white and Black passengers, the narrator states that he feels “like something regurgitated from the belly of a frantic whale.” This simile suggests that he feels overwhelmed in the crowded urban environment. Additionally, he here alludes to an event described in the Bible, in which the prophet Jonah is swallowed by a large fish or whale for three days before being miraculously regurgitated onto dry land. The narrator’s first impression of the city, then, is of a gigantic and terrifying beast.
Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—Like the Horizon:
After presenting Young Emerson with a letter of introduction addressed to his father, Mr. Emerson, by college president Dr. Bledsoe, the narrator expects to receive a job. However, Young Emerson appears to be upset by the contents of the confidential letter and permits the narrator to read it. In the letter, Dr. Bledsoe uses a simile to describe his attempt to sabotage the narrator:
This case represents, my dear Mr. Emerson, one of the rare, delicate instances in which one for whom we held great expectations has gone grievously astray, and who in his fall threatens to upset certain delicate relationships between certain interested individuals and the school. Thus, while the bearer is no longer a member of our scholastic family, it is highly important that his severance with the college be executed as painlessly as possible. I beg of you, sir, to help him continue in the direction of that promise which, like the horizon, recedes ever brightly and distantly beyond the hopeful traveler.
Identifying the narrator as “one for whom we held great expectations” but who has “gone grievously astray,” Bledsoe acknowledges his intention to permanently expel the narrator, but also to do so “as painlessly as possible.” His desire to make this process “painless” does not stem from sympathy, but rather from strategy, as he believes that the narrator can more effectively be kept away from campus with false promises of employment. He implores Mr. Emerson to distract the narrator without offering him a job, and thereby sending him “in the direction of that promise which, like the horizon, recedes [...] beyond the hopeful traveler.” This simile suggests that Bledsoe intends to keep the narrator perpetually on the verge of achieving his goals without ever actually doing so, just as a traveler can never reach the horizon.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Brightly Colored Rags:
Describing a cage full of exotic birds kept in the office of Mr. Emerson, a wealthy dealer in imported goods, the narrator uses multiple similes and rich imagery:
The room was quiet as a tomb—until suddenly there was a savage beating of wings and I looked toward the window to see an eruption of color, as though a gale had whipped up a bundle of brightly colored rags. It was an aviary of tropical birds set near one of the broad windows [...] A large bird began a song, drawing my eyes to the throbbing of its bright blue, red and yellow throat. It was startling and I watched the surge and flutter of the birds as their colors flared for an instant like an unfurled oriental fan.
The room, the narrator claims in a simile, was at first “quiet as a tomb.” This lifeless state, however, is abruptly interrupted by an “eruption of color, as though a gale had whipped up a bundle of brightly colored rags.” Having never encountered these brightly colored birds before, the narrator is at first unable to make sense of what he is seeing and describes the unfamiliar sight with detailed imagery. He notes the “throbbing” of one bird’s “bright blue, red, and yellow throat” as it begins to sing, describing the “surge and flutter of the birds,” in another simile, as being “like an unfurled oriental fan.” This simile suggests that the birds are, like the various works of art and ceramics in the office, another “exotic” imported good.
Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Like Inscrutable Fish:
After being the victim of sabotage by the paranoid and hostile factory foreman Lucius Brockway, the narrator wakes up in a hazy state in a bizarre hospital-like environment, where he observes medical personnel hovering above him through a glass surface. In his description of this surreal scene, he uses a series of similes and metaphors related to water.
Faces hovered above me like inscrutable fish peering myopically through a glass aquarium wall. I saw them suspended motionless above me, then two floating off, first their heads, then the tips of their finlike fingers, moving dreamily from the top of the case. A thoroughly mysterious coming and going, like the surging of torpid tides. I watched the two make furious movements with their mouths. I didn’t understand. They tried again, the meaning still escaping me [...]
In a simile, he notes that “faces hovered above [him] like inscrutable fish [...] through a glass aquarium wall.” The doctors have placed him in a glass box in order to observe him, and so he witnesses the scene, in a daze, as if through water. Unable to see the full bodies of the doctors, he describes them as being “suspended” above him as a series of disembodied and “floating” heads and “finlike” fingers. In another simile, he describes their “coming and going” as being “mysterious [...] like the surging of torpid tides.” These various aquatic similes and metaphors contribute to the surreal, dream-like atmosphere of the scene.
Related Themes:
