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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
Similes
Explanation and Analysis—The Thunderstorm:
During the thunderstorm scene (which ends with the narrator's father dying from fright), the narrator uses imagery, as seen in the following passage:
It had been a day of great heat, and in the afternoon the sky had grown low and heavy and black. It felt almost chilly in the house, and my father was sitting wrapped up in the rocking chair. The rain began to fall drop by heavy drop, beating like a hundred fists on the roof. It grew dark and I lit the oil lamp, sticking a pin in the wick, to keep away bad spirits from the house.
The narrator uses several types of imagery here to bring readers into the scene. The descriptions of the “great heat” outside and “chilly” temperature of the house help readers feel the scene, the description of the sky growing “low and heavy and black” helps readers see the scene, and the description of the rain falling “like a hundred fists on the roof” helps readers hear the scene.
This last description is also a simile. In comparing the rain to punching fists, Naipaul prepares readers for the way that the narrator’s father will, due to fear and paranoia, interpret the sounds of the thunderstorm as people waiting outside to kill him (leading to him drying from fright).
Related Themes:
