Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Figurative Language: Similes

Authors often use figurative language to make their writing more meaningful to the reader. One type of figurative language is the simile. A simile compares two things by using a word such as “like” or “as.” The comparison makes the writing more interesting and helps the reader to understand the author’s meaning better. An example is:

“He is hungry as a bear.”

“He” is being compared to a bear. The comparison (the way they are alike) is that both are very hungry.

Throughout Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, the author, Mildred D. Taylor, uses similes. These similes serve to make her meaning interesting and clear. An example is when Mrs. Logan says of her children “…they’re quiet as church mice.” The Logan kids are being compared to church mice. The meaning is that both mice that live in a curch and the Logans are being very quiet.

Direction: After each simile, list the two things that are being compared and what the comparison is (how they are alike). The first one has been done for you, as an example.

1. “…allowing it [dust] to sift back onto my socks and shoes like gritty red snow.” p.5

When you walk in deep snow with regular shoes and socks, the snow gets into them very easily. You can feel it and it makes you very uncomfortable. This gritty red dust also gets into your socks and shoes easily, and makes you feel uncomfortable.

2. “…sun-splotched road wound like a lazy red serpent…” p.6

3. “…bus bore down on him spewing clouds of red dust like a huge yellow dragon breathing

fire.” p. 13

4. “She [Miss Crocker] stood up, gazing down upon Little Man like a bony giant…” p. 23

5. “…he [Little Man] sucked in his breath and sprang from his chair like a wounded

animal…” p. 24

6. “…the rain fell like hail upon our bent heads.” p. 46

7. “a caravan of headlights appeared…coming fast along the rain-soaked road like cat eyes in

the night.” p. 67

8. “Mr. Morrison…moving silently, like a jungle cat, from the side of the house…” p. 68

Direction 2: Find at least two more simies in the first two chapters and continue to identify similes in each new chapter.