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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
Similes
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Doodlebug:
When describing how Doodle earned his nickname, Brother uses a pair of similes, as seen in the following passage:
When he crawled, he crawled backward, as if he were in reverse and couldn’t change gears. If you called him, he’d turn around as if he were going the other direction, then he’d back right up to you to be picked up. Crawling backward made him look like a doodlebug so I began to call him doodle, and in time even Mamma and Daddy thought it was a better name that William Armstrong.
In the first simile here, Brother notes that Doodle “crawled backward, as if he were in reverse and couldn’t change gears,” likening his brother to a faulty car. In the second simile, he explains how he started calling his brother “Doodle” because “crawling backward made him look like a doodlebug," a colloquial name for the antlion. Doodlebugs do, in fact, move backward when burrowing in soil, something that Brother likely witnessed while spending time in nature.
This passage is significant because it helps readers to picture the ways that Doodle’s disability affects his movement and also helps them to understand how Brother views Doodle’s disability. Brother demonstrates in this passage that he views his brother’s disability as something that makes him “faulty” and, at the same time, also sees it as a charming quality that is found in other beings in the natural world. As Brother gets older and becomes more influenced by society, he begins to focus more on the “faulty” nature of his brother’s disability.
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Explanation and Analysis—Like Stinging Nettles:
After a “failed” rowing session (in which Doodle had trouble rowing their boat through the start of a storm), Brother becomes irritated and runs away from his exhausted brother, leaving him collapsed on the shore. In capturing his experience while running from his brother through the rain, Brother uses a simile, as seen in the following passage:
The knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awakened. I ran as fast as I could, leaving him far behind with a wall of rain dividing us. The drops stung my face like nettles, and the wind flared the wet, glistening leaves of the bordering trees. Soon I could hear his voice no more.
The simile here—in which Brother describes how the drops of rain “stung [his] face like nettles”—captures the speed at which he is running, and also hints at the way that his anger might be “stinging” him internally in this moment. As he notes, his “streak of cruelty” has “awakened” in him, and it’s likely that he feels as irritated inside as he does on the outside.
The fact that Brother runs until he can no longer hear Doodle’s voice demonstrates how angry he is in this moment, and how deeply he had been tying his sense of self to his brother’s attempts at overcoming his disability. Here he lets his pride get the better of him, which ultimately leads to Doodle’s death while isolated from Brother during the storm.
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Explanation and Analysis—Laughter Like a Bell:
When describing the moment in which Doodle stands up on his legs for the first time, Brother uses a simile, as seen in the following passage:
Finally, one day, after many weeks of practicing, he stood alone for a few seconds. When he fell, I grabbed him in my arms and hugged him, our laughter pealing through the swamp like a ringing bell. Now we knew it could be done.
Here, Brother uses a simile when describing how his and Doodle’s laughter “peal[ed] through the swamp like a ringing bell.” This description communicates to readers that Brother and Doodle are equally thrilled at Doodle’s success and have a shared moment of joy. Bells typically ring at joyous affairs, such as weddings or other celebrations, and, the simile hints, this moment is just as important as those.
While this moment is a celebratory one, it is worth noting that the only reason Doodle is learning how to stand on his own is because Brother is ashamed of Doodle’s disability and resents having to pull his brother around in his go-cart wherever he goes. Later in the story, Brother reckons with the guilt he bears over forcing Doodle to learn how to stand and walk rather than caring for him in the ways that Doodle desired.
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Explanation and Analysis—The Storm:
When capturing the intensity of the storm that hits the North Carolina countryside at the end of the story, Hurst uses a simile and imagery, as seen in the following passage:
The rain was coming, roaring through the pines, and then, like a bursting Roman candle, a gum tree ahead of us was shattered by a bolt of lightning. When the deafening peal of thunder had died, and in the moment before the rain arrived, I heard Doodle, who had fallen behind, cry out, “Brother, Brother, don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!”
The simile here—in which Hurst describes a tree struck by lightning as being “like a bursting Roman candle”—captures the powerful, fireworks-like nature of the lightning. Hurst also uses imagery when describing the “deafening peal of thunder,” helping readers to hear the intensity of the thunder in this moment.
These rich descriptions—combined with Doodle desperately crying out, “Brother, Brother, don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!”—communicate to readers that this is not an ordinary storm. The ferocity of both the lightning and thunder increases the tension in this scene, and makes the life-or-death stakes perfectly clear, preparing readers for Doodle’s untimely death to come. The fact that Brother intentionally abandons Doodle despite the danger of their situation suggests that he is directly responsible for Doodle’s demise.
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