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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 2
Explanation and Analysis—The Cheshire Cat:
When Johnny and Ponyboy are at the drive-in, Two-Bit sneaks up on them and scares them half to death. Ponyboy compares Two-Bit's mischievous demeanor to the Cheshire Cat, alluding to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:
“Okay, greasers, you’ve had it.” I almost jumped out of my skin. It was like having someone leap out from behind a door and yell “Boo!” at you. I looked fearfully over my shoulder and there was Two-Bit, grinning like a Chessy cat. “Glory, Two-Bit, scare us to death!”
By alluding to the smiling Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the novel likens getting jumped by Socs to being haunted by strange, uncanny creatures. The animosity between the two groups is visceral and justified, which causes crippling fear in more vulnerable boys like Johnny. To the greasers, the Socs are worse than make-believe monsters because the pain and dread they incite is tangible. Consequently, Two-Bit sneaking up on Johnny and Ponyboy like a Soc is a cruel joke. Two-Bit gives the boys a mischievous smile because he momentarily forgets about Johnny's incident a few months earlier.
Nevertheless, the Cheshire Cat still remains a character from a children's novel, which emphasizes just how young and naive Ponyboy and Johnny are. This simile and allusion mixes fear with childhood innocence, highlighting the unjust violence that greasers must deal with at such a young age.
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Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Eyes of an Animal:
Four months before the start of the novel, Johnny is attacked by a group of Socs driving a blue Mustang. When that same blue Mustang begins to circle Johnny and Ponyboy, the novel uses a simile to explain the depth of Johnny's fear:
Johnny was scared to death. I mean it. He was as white as a ghost and his eyes were wild-looking, like the eyes of an animal in a trap. We backed against the fountain and the Socs surrounded us. They smelled so heavily of whiskey and English Leather that I almost choked.
Ponyboy compares Johnny to a ghost and his eyes to those of a trapped wild animal when they are being jumped by a group of Socs. These similes are consistent with the comparison of Johnny to a kicked puppy, both of which emphasize his fear of the Socs and the lasting emotional damage of social stratification. The other descriptions in this passage highlight the visceral experience of being jumped by Socs: the hyperbole of being "scared to death" and the suffocating scent of "whiskey and English leather." Getting jumped by Socs is not just a form of bullying, but a form of intentional violence. These boys have grown up in an environment where they have to fear the worst and where they cannot imagine a better life than that of a greaser.
Related Themes:
Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Grief and Tears:
When Darry and Soda pick Ponyboy up from the hospital after the church fire, Darry begins to cry in a rare show of emotion. This reminds Ponyboy of Soda's breakdown at their parents' funeral, which he describes with a simile:
Suddenly I realized, horrified, that Darry was crying. He didn’t make a sound, but tears were running down his cheeks. I hadn’t seen him cry in years, not even when Mom and Dad had been killed. (I remembered the funeral. I had sobbed in spite of myself; Soda had broken down and bawled like a baby; but Darry had only stood there, his fists in his pockets and that look on his face, the same helpless, pleading look that he was wearing now.)
Mentioning how Soda “bawled like a baby” gives a weak and adverse connotation to showing any form of emotion, especially as a greaser. This connotation therefore gives the greasers a certain identity of hardness to uphold, one that Darry doesn’t want for his kid brother. Darry wants Ponyboy to maintain his sensitivity and goodness, traits that will help him find a better future. The violent and tragic plot points in the novel prove how strong-willed the greasers have to be, as well as how ineffective it is to show emotion. To the greasers, there is no point in crying when something just as bad is bound to happen the next day.
This gives way to one of the book's lessons: namely, the idea that it is vulnerability, not hardness, that makes someone gallant. This is a lesson that characters like Ponyboy—and especially Dally—learn the hard way.
Related Themes:
Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—A Candle Extinguished:
Shortly after Johnny's heroic actions surrounding the church fire, he succumbs to his injuries in the hospital. When Johnny dies before Ponyboy's eyes, Ponyboy uses a simile to process the moment:
The pillow seemed to sink a little, and Johnny died. You read about people looking peacefully asleep when they’re dead, but they don’t. Johnny just looked dead. Like a candle with the flame gone. I tried to say something, but I couldn’t make a sound.
The candle simile that Ponyboy uses to describe Johnny is fitting, particularly since he died in a fire. Yet, a candle is also something realistic and simple. Ponyboy purposely picks a very mundane example to process Johnny's death because he needs something to hold on to while his world changes around him. The simile also exhibits Ponyboy’s naivety: a candle is something that you can easily relight, but Johnny cannot come back to life. Ponyboy has dealt with death before—his parents died in an auto accident—but the deaths of Bob, Johnny, and Dally create a string of violent deaths for which he was not prepared.
Moreover, Ponyboy's candle simile extends the meaning of Johnny's final words. In comparing Johnny's soul to a flame that can be blown out, Ponyboy highlights the fleeting nature of life in a greaser's world, further alluding to Robert Frost's poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay."
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