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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 5
Explanation and Analysis—Like Insects:
Steinbeck uses a simile that compares tractors to insects when describing the profound changes brought to Oklahoma by mechanized farming:
The tractors came over the roads and into the fields, great crawlers moving like insects, having the incredible strength of insects. They crawled over the ground, laying the track and rolling on it and picking it up. Diesel tractors, puttering while they stood idle; they thundered when they moved, and then settled down to a droning roar. Snub-nosed monsters, raising the dust and sticking their snouts into it, straight down the country, across the country, through fences, through dooryards, in and out of gullies in straight lines. They did not run on the ground, but on their own roadbeds.
Here, Steinbeck pauses his narrative to reflect upon the radical transformation of agriculture in Oklahoma and other parts of the American Southwest. Previously, farmers worked on the land by hand, growing and harvesting vegetables. Now, tractors can do the work of a hundred farmers in a single day, using brutal efficiency to plow the earth and sew seeds. Many of the property owners in states like Oklahoma, Steinbeck notes, evicted the tenant-farmers, replacing them with a much smaller number of employees who can handle these machines.
He compares the tractors, in a simile, to “insects” with the “incredible strength of insects.” Using language drawn more from the animal-world than that of machines, he writes that they “crawled over the ground,” making a sound like a “roar.” He further compares them, in a metaphor, to “snub-nosed monsters” that stick their “snouts” deep into the soil. His language here, invoking insects and monsters, treats the tractors as natural phenomena and implies that they are like a swarm of living things that have swiftly stripped the earth in the manner of a plague of locusts.
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Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Ghost:
After spotting Tom and Casy near the Joads' former family home in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, Muley describes how he has been living since his family left Oklahoma, describing himself in a simile as a “graveyard ghos’”:
“Somepin went an’ happened to me when they tol’ me I had to get off the place. Fust I was gonna go in an’ kill a whole flock a people. Then all my folks all went away out west. An’ I got wanderin’ aroun’. Jus’ walkin’ aroun’. Never went far. Slep’ wherever I was. I was gonna sleep here tonight. That’s why I come. I’d tell myself, ‘I’m lookin’ after things so when all the folks come back it’ll be all right.’ But I knowed that wan’t true. [...] I’m jus’ wanderin’ aroun’ like a damn ol’ graveyard ghos’.’’
After being alerted of their eviction by the owner of the property upon which they have lived and worked for decades, Muley’s family decide to pack up and leave Sallisaw. Unwilling to move, Muley decides to stay, and his wife leaves with their children and her brother. At first, Muley notes, he told himself that he was “lookin’ after things so when all the folks come back it’ll be alright.” Later, however, he acknowledges that this is just an excuse. In fact, Muley feels a deep connection to the land and is unable to leave it behind, despite the dangers involved in illegally trespassing. He describes himself, in a simile, as a “graveyard ghos',” haunting the land upon which he once lived legally. Muley’s simile suggests that his life is, in some sense, already over and that he wanders without purpose, revisiting places marked by significant memories in the manner of a ghost.
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Explanation and Analysis—Like a Weasel :
When Tom and Casy chat with Muley about his life since his family left Oklahoma, Muley uses a series of similes related to local animals. When Tom is surprised to see that Muley is hiding from the police, noting that he was never a “run-an’-hide fella,” Muley states that:
I was mean like a wolf. Now I’m mean like a weasel. When you’re huntin’ somepin you’re a hunter, an’ you’re strong. Can’t nobody beat a hunter. But when you get hunted—that’s different. Somepin happens to you. You ain’t strong; maybe you’re fierce, but you ain’t strong. I been hunted now for a long time. I ain’t a hunter no more. I’d maybe shoot a fella in the dark, but I don’t maul nobody with a fence stake no more. It don’t do no good to fool you or me. That’s how it is.
In the past, Muley claims, he was “mean like a wolf,” suggesting that he was bold, confident, and willing to stand up for himself, fighting if necessary. Now, however, he is “mean like a weasel.” He explains the difference between these two different animal similes. While a wolf is a “hunter” that fights in the open, a weasel is “hunted.” Though he might be “fierce,” he feels that he is not “strong” enough to fight back openly against the authorities. Having “been hunted now for a long time,” Muley feels that he would be willing to “shoot a fella in the dark” but not to fight the police in open combat, as it wouldn’t “do no good.” Muley’s similes, then, reflect the difficult living conditions he has experienced since his eviction as well as his feeling that he is little more than prey to the property owners and police officers who work together to prohibit trespassing.
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Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Goddess:
When first introducing Ma Joad, a major character in the novel, Steinbeck uses a simile that compares her to a goddess. Noting her central role in the family, Steinbeck writes:
And from her great and humble position in the family she had taken dignity and a clean calm beauty. From her position as healer, her hands had grown sure and cool and quiet; from her position as arbiter she had become as remote and faultless in judgment as a goddess. She seemed to know that if she swayed the family shook, and if she ever really deeply wavered or despaired the family would fall, the family will to function would be gone.
Ma Joad is in many ways a very humble woman, living with few luxuries and wearing worn-down clothing. Nevertheless, Steinbeck’s description emphasizes her grace, decency, and wisdom. As matriarch of the family, she carries with her a sense of “dignity and a clean calm beauty.” She assumes many important roles in the family, serving as a “healer” to the others. In her role as "arbiter," she is as “faultless in judgment as a goddess.” Like a goddess who settles disputes between mortals, she resolves family conflicts impartially. Steinbeck’s simile, then, emphasizes the extent to which her family relies upon her. Indeed, after they are forced to leave Oklahoma, she becomes the de facto head of the family, leading them through difficult trials and experiences as Pa Joad's faith begins to falter.
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Chapter 30
Explanation and Analysis—Like Machines:
After days of heavy rain, the rising waters threaten to flood the boxcars where the Joads and other families live. Fearing for Rose of Sharon, who is due to give birth, Pa Joad convinces the other men in the boxcars to help build a dam to protect the boxcars, despite their initial reluctance. Describing the intense labor of the men, Steinbeck uses a simile that compares them to machines.
The stream rose slowly up the side of the new wall, and tore at the willow mat. “Higher!’’ Pa cried. “We got to git her higher!’’ The evening came, and the work went on. And now the men were beyond weariness. Their faces were set and dead. They worked jerkily, like machines. When it was dark the women set lanterns in the car doors, and kept pots of coffee handy. And the women ran one by one to the Joad car and wedged themselves inside.
Even as night falls, the men continue to work hard to create the dam. The men, he claims, are “beyond weariness,” and are so exhausted by their task that they can no longer even feel how tired they are. “They worked,” he writes, “like machines,” drinking cups of coffee to stay awake through the draining labor. This simile emphasizes the steady nature of the work, which leaves the men no time to think or feel, making them resemble machines. Unfortunately, their tremendous labor is wasted, as a tree knocks down the dam, and the waters flood the boxcars.
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