A simile compares one thing to another using the word “as” or “like.” Smilies are unlike metaphors, where implicit comparisons are made. Metaphors do not use words like “as,” “like,” or “than.”
Similes may not be as ornate as metaphors; nonetheless, they can be effective in evoking suggestive language and making interesting and subtle associations. In this article, we take a look at several examples of how to effectively use similies, including an example from the novel The Great Gatsby.
What is a simile?
A simile is a rhetorical device that compares two things using words such as “like,” “as,” or “than.” Simile comes from the Latin word similis, which means similar or like.
An example of a simile would be He is as brave as a lion.” A more striking simile would be from Shakespeare’s famous Sonnet 29:
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate
Here, we have both a simile and metaphor being used. The poet by comparing his state to the lark is using a simile and by referring to his heart as singing is using a metaphor.
Examples of similes
Similes are similar to metaphors. However, there are some advantages to using similes over metaphors. Metaphors run the risk of being too forced, too complicated, and too ornate.
A good example of similes being used effectively is in The Harlem Dancer.
Applauding youths laughed with young prostitutes
And watched her perfect, half-clothed body sway;
Her voice was like the sound of blended flutes
Blown by black players upon a picnic day.
She sang and danced on gracefully and calm,
The light gauze hanging loose about her form;
To me she seemed a proudly-swaying palm
Grown lovelier for passing through a storm.
Upon her swarthy neck black shiny curls
Luxuriant fell; and tossing coins in praise,
The wine-flushed, bold-eyed boys, and even the girls,
Devoured her shape with eager, passionate gaze;
But looking at her falsely-smiling face,
I knew her self was not in that strange place.
The poet makes skillful and light use of simile here to identify the dancer as being alienated as he is. How? The poet is a Jamaican living in Harlem and suffers from homesickness. The first simile compares her voice to Black payers playing belnded flutes on a picnic day. Presumably, this would be a description of life in Jamaica.
If we are not sure about this association with Jamaica, the second simile puts our doubts to rest. Here, the poet compares the woman to a palm that has survived a storm. He is definitely referring to coconut trees in Jamaica surviving hurricanes. With these two light touches, the poet prepares us for the last two lines of the poem. The poet sees himself reflected in the “falsely-smiling face” of the dancer.
Both similes and metaphors can be ornate, and some writers may be motivated to use them just for the sake of picturesque writing. However, similes are only effective when they serve a purpose and support the intention of the author.
In the case of “The Harlem Dancer,” the similes support the poet’s subtle attempt to draw comparisons between himself and the dancer as alienated and out of place.
3. Shakespeare, The Twelfth Night, Act 2, scene 4:
There is no woman’s sides
Can bide the beating of so strong a passion
As love doth give my heart; no woman’s heart
So big, to hold so much; they lack retention.
Alas, their love may be called appetite,
No motion of the liver but the palate,
That suffer surfeit, cloyment, and revolt;
But mine is all as hungry as the sea,
And can digest as much. Make no compare
Between that love a woman can bear me
And that I owe Olivia.
Here, the character is comparing his love to the sea and as being superior to anything that a woman is capable of. The over-the-top simile does two things here. It displays the romantic imagination of the character and it also shows how he may be too infatuated and self-involved.
3. Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925):
A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea.
The author here is introducing us to the home of Daisy, the lady that Gatsby has been fantasizing about. Her home is appropriately described as fantastic and dream-like. It’s as if we are invited into the Great Gatsby’s imagination where Daisy resides.
However, the simile at the end referring to curtains making shadows like the wind on the sea points to the ephemeral nature of the dream. It is something that is more shadow than it is substance.
There are other hints. For example, the ceiling being described as a frosted wedding cake is a metaphor that may seem extravagant. But Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan, which obviously threatens the fantasy Gatsby has of being with Daisy.
The author in the next paragraph introduces us to Daisy:
The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house. I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall. Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows and the caught wind died out about the room, and the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor.
The first sentence compares the couch in which Daisy is sitting to a balloon. This is significant. Think of it as an implicit criticism of Gatsby’s fantasy as being full of hot air. Someone will eventually pinch that balloon and deflate his dream. We get a good idea of how that would happen at the end of the passage when Daisy’s husband shuts the window:
and the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor.
This is just on page eight of the novel. This short passage gives us a vivid description of how the entire novel will turn out by effectively using similes, metaphors, and imagery.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, November 07). Simile. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/simile |
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