Previous
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—Attentive Miss Moore:
Once Sylvia and her neighborhood friends are inside of FAO Schwarz, they look around at all the toys. In this moment, Sylvia notices Miss Moore watching them and uses a pair of similes to capture the way her teacher is relating to them:
We all walkin on tiptoe and hardly touchin the games and puzzles and things. And I watched Miss Moore who is steady watchin us like she waitin for a sign. Like Mama Drewery watches the sky and sniffs the air and takes note of just how much slant is in the bird formation.
In the first simile, Sylvia notes that Miss Moore is watching her and her peers “like she waitin for a sign,” before expanding on that with a second simile, describing how Miss Moore is like an older woman in their neighborhood who “watches the sky and sniffs the air and takes note of just how much slant is in the bird formation.”
These two similes together communicate to readers that Miss Moore is being extra attentive because she is waiting for her students to show signs of learning the lesson that she is trying to impart with this field trip. While Sylvia is not sure what that is yet, it becomes clear by the end of the story that Miss Moore is trying to teach them about the injustice of the racial wealth divide in the U.S. The “sign” that she is likely waiting for here (her version of noting a particular bird formation) is for the children to express anger or distress as they realize that they will never be able to afford the expensive toys that the White families in the store will easily be able to.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Real Money:
When capturing her reaction to one of Miss Moore’s lessons about money, Sylvia uses a series of similes, as seen in the following passage:
And Miss Moore asking us do we know what money is, like we a bunch of retards. I mean real money, she say, like it’s only poker chips or monopoly papers we lay on the grocer. So right away I’m tired of this and say so.
The first simile here—in which Sylvia says that Miss Moore speaks to her and her peers “like we a bunch of retards”—uses an offensive slur for people with intellectual disabilities and also communicates something important. Here Sylvia is expressing, in the colloquial language of her time, that Miss Moore—who comes from a higher class position—speaks to Sylvia and her peers in a condescending manner. Sylvia uses two more similes when sardonically describing how Miss Moore’s condescending questions make it seem “like it’s only poker chips or monopoly papers we lay on the grocer.”
Here Sylvia expresses anger over the fact that Miss Moore, who isn’t originally from Harlem, acts like Sylvia and her neighborhood friends don’t understand the realities of the world. What Bambara communicates to readers in this passage is that Sylvia and her peers have had to become precocious to survive—as children living in poverty, they know the meaning of money better than most.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Jigsaw Puzzle:
When describing the way that she and her neighborhood friends enter the fancy FAO Schwarz toy store, Sylvia uses a simile, as seen in the following passage:
But then Mercedes steps up and then Rosie Giraffe and Big Butt crowd in behind and shove, and next thing we all stuffed into the doorway with only Mercedes squeezing past us, smoothing out her jumper and walking right down the aisle. Then the rest of us tumble in like a glued-together jigsaw done all wrong. And people lookin at us.
The simile here—in which Sylvia describes how she and some of her peers “tumble" into the store "like a glued-together jigsaw done all wrong”—communicates to readers that these Black children from Harlem feel very out of place at FAO Schwarz, an expensive toy store in Midtown Manhattan primarily frequented by wealthy White families. The simile here, along with the earlier description of how some of the children “crowd[ed] in behind and shove[d]” and Sylvia’s note that “people lookin at us,” help readers to understand that these children are not following the implicit rules of White society and are, as a result, sticking out.
This is one of the many moments in the story when Bambara highlights how race and racism structure so many aspects of American life. Children of all races, she subtly suggests, should feel comfortable and welcome in stores specifically designed for them.
Related Themes:
