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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
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—The Good Old Days:
In Chapter 2, Lauren and her younger brother, Keith, are baptized by their father, who is a Baptist minister. While Lauren admits that she no longer believes in her father's God and church, she uses a simile to acknowledge that the idea of church has a different meaning for the adults in her community:
To the adults, going outside to a real church was like stepping back into the good old days when there were churches all over the place and too many lights and gasoline was for fueling cars and trucks instead of for torching things. They never miss a chance to relive the good old days or to tell kids how great it's going to be when the country gets back on its feet and good times come back.
Lauren recognizes that for the adults, going to church is a metaphor for the "good old days." It is a way for older generations, who hold memories of past normalcy, to "relive the good old days" and look forward to their return. Lauren disapproves of how the adults hold onto the hope that the "country [will] get back on its feet" and that old ways of life will return.
Lauren's rejection of her father's church and its ideology fits into this simile. As Lauren continues to notice flaws in the Christianity preached by the adults around her, she comes to the conclusion that holding onto these old values only prevents people from truly progressing. This is why she develops Earthseed with such urgency and purpose.
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Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Surrounded by Sharks:
After Amy Dunn's death, Lauren reflects on how close violence and danger have come to encroach on her walled community. In the following passage from Chapter 5, Lauren employs simile to compare her neighborhood to "an island surrounded by sharks":
It's like an island surrounded by sharks—except that sharks don't bother you unless you go in the water. But our land sharks are on their way in. It's just a matter of how long it takes for them to get hungry enough.
This simile illustrates the presence of danger and violence all around Lauren's gated community. While her family and the other residents have remained safe thus far by staying out of the "water"—the world outside their walls—Lauren still feels the presence of "sharks" around them. She implies that it is only a matter of time before the sharks "get hungry enough"—that is, before outsiders invade the supposed safety of life within her neighborhood.
This feeling is ultimately what propels Lauren into urgency for Earthseed. By acknowledging that even her home (which many still consider safe) is at risk, Lauren becomes increasingly motivated to find an alternative ideology and way of life that will help people improve their lives in the new environment.
Related Themes:
Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—A Rattlesnake's Warning:
In Chapter 6, Lauren uses a simile to liken her father's voice to a rattlesnake's warning sound:
His voice had had that warning edge to it that my brothers and I had come to call the rattle—as in a rattlesnake's warning sound. If you pushed him past the rattle, you were in trouble. If he called you "son" or "daughter" you were close to trouble.
This simile conflates the natural world (via rattlesnakes) with domestic trouble. The comparison represents how human society is breaking down within the post-apocalyptic world of the novel, and how humans must now confront the wilderness more and more. The very fact that Lauren is able to recognize a rattlesnake's warning sound is proof of the fact that humans are perhaps experiencing more direct encounters with wildlife.
Lauren's comparison of her father to a snake also implies she fears him and his potential for power. As the major authority figure in her life and also a leader of their church, Lauren's father serves as a powerful and influential figure to many people in Lauren's life. Although Lauren will depart from her father's Baptist tradition, she follows in his footsteps by becoming a religious leader of Earthseed. With her father as a model, Lauren comes to understand that fear is often coupled with power and respect.
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Chapter 24
Explanation and Analysis—An Old-Style Graveyard:
In Chapter 24, Lauren and her group finally arrive at Bankole's land in northern California. They expect to find Bankole's family and property but are instead met by charred remains of the buildings that once stood, which are described using a simile:
There was no house. There were no buildings. There was almost nothing: A broad black smear on the hillside; a few charred planks sticking up from the rubble, some leaning against others; and a tall brick chimney, standing black and solitary like a tombstone in a picture of an old-style graveyard. A tombstone amid the bones and ashes.
In her description, Lauren compares Bankole's land to a "graveyard," as the structural remains resemble "tombstones." This represents not only the destruction of infrastructure but also the deaths of Bankole's family members who had resided there . The building remains are, in essence, a symbolic graveyard of Bankole's family members, with apt images of vertical "planks" and the "chimney" that resemble a true graveyard.
In a larger sense, this graveyard represents how Lauren and her group will truly have to start over and build a new settlement rather than relying on past infrastructure. In a way, this is an opportunity for Lauren to truly establish Earthseed as an original religion and organizing tenet for her followers. The graveyard of Bankole's past, then, is also a symbol of rebirth.
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