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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
Part 1
Explanation and Analysis—The Christmas Pantomime:
In the following excerpt, Cather connects Paul’s desires to some imagined, mythical world, using simile to describe the building the German soloist enters as a “fairy world” seen only in a “Christmas pantomime”:
There it was, what he wanted—tangibly before him, like the fairy world of a Christmas pantomime; as the rain beat in his face, Paul wondered whether he were destined always to shiver in the black night outside, looking up at it.
The phrase "Christmas pantomime" refers to a play, likely something akin to The Nutcracker—a traditional seasonal tale containing all manner of fantastical elements. In fact, The Nutcracker is set on Christmas Eve and takes place within a child's imaginary landscape. Performed as a ballet written by Tchaikovsky, the imagery of this particular "pantomime" serves as an evocative painting of the heightened sensations and vivid mythical beauty of Paul's imaginary world. This contrasts directly with the frigid cold of reality, the "black night" and the rain beating in Paul's face, representing the harsh nature of the world he must return to when he awakens from the dream.
This imagery is doubly effective because it connects to an earlier scene: the doorway is illuminated like some kind of stage, contrasting with the surrounding darkness. Paul cannot enter with building with the German soloist—he can only observe her going in. He only exists in the darkness of the audience, spectating but never participating.
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Explanation and Analysis—Paul's Spirit:
Throughout the text, figurative language is used to connect Paul to the mystical, fantastical fairy-tale landscape of his imagination. When Cather first describes Paul's reaction to music in the text, she uses one such simile:
It was not that symphonies, as such, meant anything in particular to Paul, but the first sigh of the instruments seemed to free some hilarious and potent spirit within him; something that struggled there like the genie in the bottle found by the Arab fisherman.
The part of Paul that yearns to be a part of something greater than himself—the part that yearns for adventure and beauty and romance—is emblematized by the genie in the bottle, the mythical entity. Paul wishes he could transmogrify into this mythical being and transcend his surroundings; his tragedy is that he cannot. In this regard, Paul is both the "genie in the bottle" and the "Arab fisherman" who discovers him (a clear allusion to A Thousand and One Nights, the collection of Middle Eastern folk tales). If Paul cannot harness the magic of the spirit within him, he wants to at least get close to that magic in any way he can: by possessing the "genie in the bottle" and taking brief glimpses at the spirit inside, or by attending the opera as an usher if he cannot attend as a patron.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Paul's Otherworldliness:
In the following excerpt, the narrator describes the schoolmaster’s reaction to Paul’s face as he sleeps. Using language that further sets Paul apart from his peers, Cather employs simile to liken Paul's face to that of an old man’s:
One warm afternoon the boy had gone to sleep at his drawing-board, and his master had noted with amazement what a white, blue-veined face it was; drawn and wrinkled like an old man’s about the eyes, the lips twitching even in his sleep.
This simile is notable for the fact that it provides significant insight into Paul's character: how he views the world, how he moves through his environment, and how others experience him as a person. Though Cather chooses not to state it directly, the act of comparing Paul to an old man is a roundabout way of calling him an "old soul"—some kind of wise, ancient poet reincarnated into the body of a boy. This comparison further alienates Paul from his surroundings, suggesting that he's somehow atypical for a person of his age. The phrase "blue-veined face" especially illustrates the ways in which other people look at him as different, as if he is unnervingly unlike other boys his age (none of whom have visible veins in their faces or wrinkles around their eyes).
Related Themes:
