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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 4
Explanation and Analysis—Breaks Lak Day:
There is a very pretty if brief simile in one of the first conversations between Joe Starks and Janie. Jody is flirting with Janie and trying to convince her to come with him and leave Logan Killicks.
You come go wid me. Den all de rest of yo' natural life you kin live lak you oughta. Kiss me and shake yo' head. When you do dat, yo' plentiful hair breaks lak day.
The simile is simple in its structure: "yo' plentiful hair breaks lak day."Jody describes Janie's hair like a dawn. Many of the chapters in the book begin with a description of the dawn, which this simile reflects. But there is a contrast, since Janie's hair is described throughout the book to be black in color. That is the power of the simile: in no literal way does Janie's hair resemble the dawn. But Janie's hair is beautiful like the dawn and brings Jody joy like the dawn. The timing of this statement as a whole is quite effective: Jody is talking about the possibilities of their future together — and then right at the end of his statement, he describes how her hair is like the break of day, evoking feelings of possibility in their future life.
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Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Baggy:
Hurston makes a very evocative image of the fat, decrepit figure of an elderly Joe Starks, one of the multiple descriptions of the horrible states to which each of Janie's husbands come. This description focuses on his looseness, as he all but melts away:
Then too she noticed how baggy Joe was getting all over. Like bags hanging from an ironing board. A little sack hung from the corners of his eyes and rested on his cheek-bones, a loose-filled back of feathers hung from his ears and rested on his neck beneath his chin. A sack of flabby something hung from his loins and rested on his thighs when he sat down. But even these things were running down like candle grease as time moves on.
In the first sentence "baggy" may seem like an odd description, but one of the essential features of Hurston's style is that her images are seldom expected, predictable, or familiar. Hurston commits to "baggy" as a descriptor, confirming and elaborating it in the unexpected yet clear simile, "Like bags hanging from an ironing board." This uses a familiar image, an ironing board, but positions it in a new context to work as an entirely evocative simile for Joe's old body. (Note that the narrator, echoing Janie's disgust, calls the man "Joe," not the more affectionate "Jody.") Hurston clarifies that these bags hanging off an ironing board are full of feathers and "flabby something." They hang from his face, ears, and loins. The image of bags is precise for an old man gone to seed, but it is entirely novel, avoiding anything close to cliche.
This imagery also shows how gross Joe has become, but it also shows how differently gross he is than Logan Killicks. While Janie's first husband was unappealing because he stank and refused to wash, her second was unappealing because he became fat and ugly as he aged. Hurston uses the distinct and evocative imagery for each husband to show Janie's development through the novel. Janie does not just fall for the same type of bad men (say, smelly ones), but up to this point she has married two different flawed men and lost her patience with both. Through her relationships with these different men, Janie develops into her own personality and maturity; the varying imagery between the husbands helps to trace this development in the novel.
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Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Underneath uh Dove's Wing:
Tea Cake tries to make an argument, asking Janie to allow him to comb her hair, by using pathos, followed by a simile that is at once argumentatively effective and aesthetically beautiful. He says he likes to comb Janie's hair, which she can't understand:
"Why, Tea Cake? Whut good do combin' my hair do you? It's mah comfortable, not yourn."
"It's mine too. Ah ain't sleepin' so good for more'n uh week cause Ah been wishin' so bad tuh get mah hands in yo' hair. It's so pretty. It feels jus' lak underneath uh dove's wing next to mah face."
Tea Cake tells Janie that he wants to comb her hair so badly that he has hardly slept. He describes his unpleasant situation in order to try and convince Janie to allow him to play with her hair (and, by extension, to take her as a wife). This is, then, an example of pathos: using emotion to support an argument. Pathos can occur in works of fiction as well as argumentative essays or speeches; it is a way to convince someone, as Tea Cake tries to do here.
After this example of pathos, Tea Cake uses a simile to create a beautiful image of Janie's hair, "lak underneath uh dove's wing next to my face." One of multiple similes about Janie's hair, this is another of Hurston's many simple yet evocative images. Compare her descriptions of the old, gross Logan Killicks and his smelly feet, and Joe Starks's old body "like bags hanging from an ironing board." The images in this book are often as unfamiliar and unexpected as they are beautiful. Tea Cake describes Janie's hair as soft and delicate, like the underside of a bird's feathers. By a comparison to a dove he subtly implies that Janie's hair, and Janie herself, would bring him peace. Tea Cake combines pathos and simile into an effective argument, showing his ability as a quick-talking flirter.
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