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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
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Money and Beauty:
In Chapter 3, in a description of Mahesh and Shoba, Naipaul includes a simile to describe how the couple relates to beauty:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[...] personal beauty being the obsession and theme of that couple, like money for rich people.
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Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Health and Peace:
In Chapter 6, when the town is experiencing an economic boom and also a period of peace, Salim uses a simile to reflect on his experience:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I shared in the boom. I was energetic in my own modest way. But I was also restless. You so quickly get used to peace. It is like being well—you take it for granted, and forget that when you were ill, to be well again had seemed everything. And with peace and the boom I began to see the town as ordinary, for the first time.
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Chapter 14
Explanation and Analysis—Poison:
In Chapter 14, Naipaul foreshadows the dissolution of Salim and Yvette’s relationship with a simile. He writes:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Something had intervened; some new habit had begun to form, breaking up the delicate membrane of older memory. It was what I had been expecting. It had to be, one day. But the moment was like poison.
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