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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
Similes
Explanation and Analysis—Lizabeth Eavesdropping:
When describing her experience of overhearing her parents arguing after waking up in the middle of the night, Lizabeth uses a simile and imagery, as seen in the following passage:
When I awoke, somewhere in the middle of the night, my mother had returned, and I vaguely listened to the conversation that was audible through the thin walls that separated our rooms. At first I heard no words, only voices. My mother’s voice was like a cool, dark room in summer—peacefully soothing, quiet. I loved to listen to it; it made things seem all right somehow. But my father’s voice cut through hers, shattering the peace.
The simile in this passage compares Lizabeth’s mother’s voice to “a cool, dark room in summer,” communicating to readers just how calming and comforting the young Lizabeth’s mother’s voice is to her. This sentence is also an example of imagery in that it appeals to readers’ senses by encouraging them to feel the coolness of the room as well as to hear the “soothing, quiet” nature of the mother’s voice. This description of Lizabeth’s father’s voice “cut[ting] through hers” and “shattering the peace” adds to the auditory imagery.
Collier includes imagery in this moment in order to help readers settle into a sense of serenity before Lizabeth’s father disrupts the scene by breaking down into tears about being unable to find work, which leads to Lizabeth’s coming-of-age experience of reckoning with the realities of her family's poverty.
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Explanation and Analysis—Miss Lottie’s House:
When describing the state of Miss Lottie’s house, Lizabeth uses a simile:
Miss Lottie’s house was the most ramshackle of all our ramshackle homes. The sun and rain had long since faded its rickety frame siding from white to a sullen gray. The boards themselves seemed to remain upright, not from being nailed together but rather from leaning together like a house that a child might have constructed from cards.
The simile here—in which Lizabeth describes Miss Lottie’s house as being like “a house that a child might have constructed from cards”—captures just how decrepit Miss Lottie’s home is. While Lizabeth has already described it as “the most ramshackle of all [their] ramshackle homes,” this simile communicates that it is so ramshackle that it appears as if it were made out of flimsy playing cards.
This description is significant because it simultaneously communicates the extreme level of poverty in which the characters in the story live as well as the fact that Miss Lottie is the most destitute of all of them. This is important because it contextualizes her decision to grow marigolds as an act of rebellion against her difficult circumstances. In other words, it demonstrates how hard Miss Lottie fights to have beauty in her life, despite her lack of resources.
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Explanation and Analysis—Lizabeth’s Memories:
Near the beginning of the story, Lizabeth (who is narrating the story from many years in the future) describes her relationship to her memories of childhood using an implied metaphor and a simile, as seen in the following passage:
Whenever the memory of those marigolds flashes across my mind, a strange nostalgia comes with it and remains long after the picture has faded. I feel again the chaotic emotions of adolescence, elusive as smoke, yet as real as the potted geranium before me now.
In the first sentence of this passage, Lizabeth metaphorically refers to her memory of destroying Miss Lottie’s marigolds to a picture that “flashes across” her mind before fading again. In the second sentence, she uses a simile when describing how her “chaotic emotions of adolescence” are “elusive as smoke.”
These two uses of figurative language help readers to understand that it has been a long time since the events of the story took place (most likely Lizabeth is now in old age), but that, no matter how “elusive” her memories are, this particular memory of the marigolds has stayed with her all of this time and still evokes strong emotions. This lets readers know early in the story that her experience with the marigolds was deeply impactful, preparing them for the coming-of-age story to come.
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