Similes

Liz Rad, Becca C and Charlie Ebert He-man is as sly as a fox. This is an example of a simile. __Simile__: //Noun// The dictionary defines the word simile as "A figure of speech in which two things are explicitly compared." Usually the word 'like' or, 'as' is used to compare the said two things. Some examples: As cool as a cucumber. As nutty as a fruitcake. As welcome as a skunk at a lawn party. Ran like a deer. Simile is where people, events, animals, ect are compared by using "like" or "as". Some examples are: he was as huge as an elephant and he was as cool as ice. Similies are also used in [|movies and songs].

__**Examples from The Plot Against America:**__
1. (page 305) "---while inside the synagogue the mayor repeats and repeats his four irate syllables, angrily banging the pulpit not **like** an orator theatrically emphasizing a point but like an outraged citizen demanding the truth." This simile is important because it not only gives the mayors feelings about Lindbergh's disappearance, it also contributes to the feelings of other people who are wondering where the president went. They want the truth, which the government is keeping from them.

2.(page 271) "Here they were, the callous and the obtuse and the mentally deficient, the Jews' very own deviants strolling the streets **like** sailors on shore leave looking for a fight" This is a good example because it talks about the Jewish Police that were brought in to protect Philip's neighborhood due to all the rioting breaking out. And how for awhile there the Jews were not safe. There was people throwing firebombs into local schools were the population of Jewish students was at a high percent.

3. (page 295) "Blood smeared **like** a sign across my father's forehead". This is a good use of simile because it is comparing the blood on Herman's forehead to a sign. Roth compares the blood to the sign because it stands out and is really noticeable so Roth is trying to allow the reader to visualize the blood as extremely noticeable and obvious on Herman. Like this simile and many other they help create a visual image to allow the reader to visualize.

4. (page 295) "The two of them not so much fistfighting, not so much wrestling **as ** caroming....rearing back and charging in **like ** men with antlers branching from their brows". This again is another good use of a simile becuase it first describes Alvin and Herman not wrestling but colliding and getting back up and colliding again like deer "antlers branching from their brows". This fight is protrayed as a clumsy. There is really no specific way that they fought, just running into one another. Roth is describes this as not a fight where the men were being pinned, but falling over after colliding and getting back up and fighting again by using two similes.

More simile examples courtesy of [|saidwhat.com]