A simile is a means of comparison using the words "like" or "as"; for example, saying, "She hovered like a helicopter." In Chapter 7 of The Magician's Nephew, as Digory tries to sort out what to do about the Witch, who has come into his world, there are more than two similes. I will share a few.
Digory must keep an eye on the front door, to try to stop the Witch before she...
A simile is a means of comparison using the words "like" or "as"; for example, saying, "She hovered like a helicopter." In Chapter 7 of The Magician's Nephew, as Digory tries to sort out what to do about the Witch, who has come into his world, there are more than two similes. I will share a few.
Digory must keep an eye on the front door, to try to stop the Witch before she enters the house. He "must watch the front door like a cat watching a mouse's hole" (90). Next, when the Witch appears, standing on the roof of a hansom, "her eyes shone like fire, and her long hair streamed out behind her like a comet's tail" (93). She whispers to the horse in a way that stirs it up, and "its neigh was like a scream" (93).
Similes are quite important in literature, allowing us to experience something more concretely and at the same time more imaginatively. As we imagine Digory watching over the front door, we get that image of a cat waiting to pounce, and as we think about the Witch, we get a sharper image than if the writer had simply said her eyes shone and her hair blew out behind her. As we read, these concrete comparisons contribute a great deal to our enjoyment of a story.
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