Essay on Similes in The Big Sleep

Being perfect is impossible to handle so Bauer uses similes to describe Jill in how she handles her life. To have descriptive images, Bauer used similes to describe Jill when she is working to make readers understand how being perfect is like. When Jill was explaining how her job goes like in a day, she used her memory to tell the readers. The author had used a simile to how Jill acted, “... watching my station like a hawk, keeping the coffee brewing, getting the pancakes

For example, Bradbury writes “He would stride off, sending patterns of frosty air before him like the smoke of a cigar.” The simile used does a great job showing the reader the setting of this scene in the “The Pedestrian”. In this scene a man is walking down the sidewalk kicking up ash-like dust. When the reader sees the image of that man, the reader gets the sense of a content and tranquil situation.

The Big Sleep is taken place in Los Angeles during the Great Depression, which was a time of corruption and economic turmoil. The novel’s themes are primarily the desperation during the Great Depression and the corruption of American Society. A majority of the characters in the book are criminals of some sort, committing crimes for money. Raymond Chandler, the novel’s author, uses allusions, comparisons, and symbolism to help understand the themes of society. Chandler is able to emphasize the corruption of society and the evils within it using motifs, symbols and figurative language.

In Chapter 3 page 39 he uses simile when saying “While his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug” when describing someone’s car and a small bug. By comparing these two objects the reader can conclude that the car moved in a way that is comparable to a small yellow bug. The second example of his use of simile is on page 39 of chapter 3 when he says “Girls came and went by like moths among the whisperings. This example of simile was used to describe the frequency of girls coming into and leaving his life by comparing them to moths. Fitzgerald used his form of figurative language to express his view of different events in his life. The use of simile is by far one of the most common forms of figurative language in the history of American

Right near the beginning the author writes “Gusts of wind made bits of paper dance between the parked cars” which is an example of personification. This use of figurative language helps develop a gloomy mood and the fact neighborhood might be poor. Next the author writes “Father’s words like the distant thunder that now echoed through the streets of Harlem” which is an example of a simile. By comparing “Father’s” words to a distant thunder it makes the reader think his father is a big, strict, loud, and that the character and his father are probably in an argument. Finally, the author describes Lemon Brown’s voice as “high and brittle like twigs being broken” which is an example of a simile. By describing the voice as high and brittle it makes the reader think the voice may be from an older person who is potentially a woman. Walter Dean Myers makes great use of figurative language in the story Treasure of Lemon Brown.

In Richard Matheson's novel, the author uses a range of rhetorical devices to emphasize what Robert Neville is going through. In lines 1-5, the author uses a metaphor and similes to compare things to a character being appeared. In line 1, the author highlights a metaphor to compare a man to a shredder, for example, "his voice a grating rasp", which means that the man's voice is loud and shredded like a shredder being used to cut anything. In lines 1-2, the author mentions simile to compare a man's appearance to a turkey, for example, "He saw the man's throat moving like clammy turkey skin," which means that the man's throat is moving wobbly as similar to a turkey's skin.

Find at least 5 similes (Comparisons using "like" or "as") in the text. Does his use of comparisons enhance the imagery of the text? If yes, how? If not, what is the significance of that imagery. - “The hair was yellow like that of a circus kewpie doll…” - “The face heavily powered and rouged, as though to form an abstract mask…” - “Her breasts were firm and round as the domes of East Indian temples…” - “To see the fine skin texture and beads of pearly perspiration glistening like dew around the pink and erected buds of her nipples.”

Similes are used when comparing two things using the words like or as. Fitzgerald used similes throughout the whole book to help give a better understanding to the reader. “Men and girls came and went like moths” This quote uses the word like to compare men and girls to moths making it a simile. This helped give the reader more of an image of what they looked like because instead of just imagining a bunch of men and girls standing around, they imagine them coming and going like moths which is what nick was seeing.

The use of simile and metaphor are used a surplus amount of times to try and show who the characters in the story really are. For example, at the start of the story Layton’s freedom is represented through the quote “his arms flapping like a bird…” since he is always looking into the distance and climbing the chinaberry tree (331). Layton Bridges always watched the freight train go by in the distance and saw the train as freedom to bring him to New York but all he had was false hope. His mother, who lived in New York, never sent Mr. Stubbs to get Layton and bring him to the “better life” in NY. Layton believed the North it was beautiful with no riots and killings because that was what his mother would say in her letters. “The letter had said as soon as school was out and school had been out for weeks.” (336). Layton had hopes and dreams to go live with his mother; he expected New York to be a whole new world for him. “New sounds. New smells. New sights. No more picking cotton. No more dragging the long sack of cotton over sunbaked fields of dusty stalks, kicking up the red dirt. No more choking on cement dust.” (339). The repetition used in this quote shows how much Layton thinks New York will be a better life for him with his mother. She would tell him all nice things so he wouldn’t be worried about her but that only hurt Layton, she betrayed him. He wanted to go to New York but knew if he left, his grandmother would not be able to get

"A miserable horse, whose ribs were as articulate as the bars of a gridiron, stalked about a field...” (page 322). This is an example of a simile because it compares the ribs of the horse to bars of gridiron. This just goes to show that Tom doesn’t really take care of his property.

An Examination of Similes in the Iliad - and how Homer's Use of Them Affected the

These metaphors make the book have a deeper meaning to

Marlowe’s life: the absence of a home. We also learn this when Marlowe comes home to

In The Big Sleep, Chandler portrays Marlowe as the knight in shining armor. This establishes a motif of the stained glass window in General Stern wood’s home in the first chapter of the novel and is an appropriate motif in dictating Marlowe’s knightly role in the novel. The stained glass that is reflected in the novel places Marlowe in the position of the knight as it shows a knight who strives to reach a woman to set her free. The fact that he stares at the glass makes him develop the need to offer assistance. This motif is suitable because it sets the stage for what is to take place in the aftermath when Marlowe rescues Carmen. Secondly, Chandler tries to connect Marlowe with the knightly personality from the beginning of the novel that he intended to name his detective the modern knight and a brave man fighting for General Sternwood. He takes the role of the servant to Sternwood’s lord and therefore, in the knightly terms, it is sufficient to say that Marlowe is striving to find justice. Moreover, he is dedicated to rendering his services in the line of duty with much loyalty and honor despite the sexual and financial temptations that come his way. Like the ancient knights, Marlowe has deeply invested in his personal code of chivalry that contain among others, the need to overcome the sexual temptation of whatever magnitude that comes his way. Lastly, as a representation of the modern-day knight, Marlowe comes out in the novel as a tough detective and a brave individual

     In Raymond Chandler's novel The Big Sleep, he presents two sisters, Vivian and Carmen. These women become the central characters, aside from Philip Marlowe, and they control much of the action in the novel. The 1946 film version of The Big Sleep, however, manipulates Chandler's characters considerably. Aside from playing with the dialogue of the novel, the screen-writers change the very essences of Vivian and Carmen. Perhaps it is the casting of the film which forces changes from the novel, or perhaps the Production Code keeps the writers from developing the women in the way that Chandler does; either way, the film version of The Big Sleep makes the story romantic and