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Q: Huckleberry Finn Literary Qualities ( Answered 5 out of 5 stars,   1 Comment )
Question  
Subject: Huckleberry Finn Literary Qualities
Category: Reference, Education and News > Education
Asked by: firestormzx030-ga
List Price: $25.00
Posted: 31 Oct 2005 14:10 PST
Expires: 30 Nov 2005 14:10 PST
Question ID: 587205
I need 25 similes and metaphores from text in the book, "The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", written by Mark Twain.  I need at
least ten of each but, a total of 25.  They can be from any place in
the book, but I will need to know which chapter each are located in.
If you need additional clarification I will respond as quickly as I
can.
Answer  
Subject: Re: Huckleberry Finn Literary Qualities
Answered By: pinkfreud-ga on 31 Oct 2005 16:47 PST
Rated:5 out of 5 stars
 
I've found you a few more than the 25 you requested. This was a very
enjoyable piece of research, since I got to read "Huckleberry Finn"
again!

Below are the similes and metaphors that I found. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------
  SIMILES
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter V:

"caved in, like a lid"

"His hat was laying on the floor--an old black slouch with the top
caved in, like a lid."

"drunk as a fiddler"

"Then they tucked the old man into a beautiful room, which was the
spare room, and in the night some time he got powerful thirsty and
clumb out on to the porch-roof and slid down a stanchion and traded
his new coat for a jug of forty-rod, and clumb back again and had a
good old time; and towards daylight he crawled out again, drunk as a
fiddler, and rolled off the porch and broke his left arm in two
places, and was most froze to death when somebody found him after
sun-up."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter VII:

"riding high like a duck"

"Well, all at once here comes a canoe; just a beauty, too, about
thirteen or fourteen foot long, riding high like a duck."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XI:

"shook like a leaf"

"I reckon I shook like a leaf, and I didn't know hardly what to do."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XVII:

"busted, like an old basket"

"And there was nice split-bottom chairs, and perfectly sound, too--not
bagged down in the middle and busted, like an old basket."

"very wee black slippers, like a chisel"

One was a woman in a slim black dress, belted small under the armpits,
with bulges like a cabbage in the middle of the sleeves, and a large
black scoop-shovel bonnet with a black veil, and white slim ankles
crossed about with black tape, and very wee black slippers, like a
chisel, and she was leaning pensive on a tombstone on her right elbow,
under a weeping willow, and her other hand hanging down her side
holding a white handkerchief and a reticule, and underneath the
picture it said "Shall I Never See Thee More Alas."

"hair... knotted there in front of a comb like a chair-back"

"Another one was a young lady with her hair all combed up straight to
the top of her head, and knotted there in front of a comb like a
chair-back, and she was crying into a handkerchief and had a dead bird
laying on its back in her other hand with its heels up, and underneath
the picture it said "I Shall Never Hear Thy Sweet Chirrup More Alas."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XVIII:

"he straightened himself up like a liberty-pole"

"Sometimes he smiled, and it was good to see; but when he straightened
himself up like a liberty-pole, and the lightning begun to flicker out
from under his eyebrows, you wanted to climb a tree first, and find
out what the matter was afterwards."

"gentle and sweet like a dove"

"She was gentle and sweet like a dove, and she was only twenty."

"held her head up like a queen"

"Miss Charlotte she held her head up like a queen while Buck was
telling his tale, and her nostrils spread and her eyes snapped."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XXI:

"shut in like a tunnel" 

"One morning, when we was pretty well down the State of Arkansaw, we
come in sight of a little one-horse town in a big bend; so we tied up
about three-quarters of a mile above it, in the mouth of a crick which
was shut in like a tunnel by the cypress trees, and all of us but Jim
took the canoe and went down there to see if there was any chance in
that place for our show."

"whooping and yelling like an Injun"

"Boggs comes a-tearing along on his horse, whooping and yelling like
an Injun, and singing out: 'Cler the track, thar.  I'm on the
waw-path, and the price uv coffins is a-gwyne to raise."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XXII:

"looking just like a gang of real sure-enough queens"

"It was the splendidest sight that ever was when they all come riding
in, two and two, a gentleman and lady, side by side, the men just in
their drawers and undershirts, and no shoes nor stirrups, and resting
their hands on their thighs easy and comfortable --there must a been
twenty of them--and every lady with a lovely complexion, and perfectly
beautiful, and looking just like a gang of real sure-enough queens,
and dressed in clothes that cost millions of dollars, and just
littered with diamonds."

"horse a-going like a house afire"

"But pretty soon he struggled up astraddle and grabbed the bridle,
a-reeling this way and that; and the next minute he sprung up and
dropped the bridle and stood! and the horse a-going like a house afire
too."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XXIII:

"as splendid as a rainbow"

When the place couldn't hold no more, the duke he quit tending door
and went around the back way and come on to the stage and stood up
before the curtain and made a little speech, and praised up this
tragedy, and said it was the most thrillingest one that ever was; and
so he went on a-bragging about the tragedy, and about Edmund Kean the
Elder, which was to play the main principal part in it; and at last
when he'd got everybody's expectations up high enough, he rolled up
the curtain, and the next minute the king come a-prancing out on all
fours, naked; and he was painted all over, ring-streaked-and-striped,
all sorts of colors, as splendid as a rainbow."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XXIV:

"like a man that's been drownded nine days"

"He dressed Jim up in King Lear's outfit--it was a long curtain-calico
gown, and a white horse-hair wig and whiskers; and then he took his
theater paint and painted Jim's face and hands and ears and neck all
over a dead, dull, solid blue, like a man that's been drownded nine
days."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XXV: 

"the noise of the tramping was like a soldier march"

"Pretty soon we was in the middle of a crowd, and the noise of the
tramping was like a soldier march."

"like a baby that can't talk"

"But the rest was on hand, and so they all come and shook hands with
the king and thanked him and talked to him; and then they shook hands
with the duke and didn't say nothing, but just kept a-smiling and
bobbing their heads like a passel of sapheads whilst he made all sorts
of signs with his hands and said 'Goo-goo--goo-goo-goo' all the time,
like a baby that can't talk."

"stomped on the floor like a perfect storm"

"Everybody clapped their hands and stomped on the floor like a perfect
storm, whilst the king held up his head and smiled proud."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XXVIII:

"like a person that's had a tooth pulled out"

"I asked her to let me think a minute; and she set there, very
impatient and excited and handsome, but looking kind of happy and
eased-up, like a person that's had a tooth pulled out."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XXIX:

"happy and satisfied, like a jug that's googling out buttermilk"

"The duke he never let on he suspicioned what was up, but just went a
goo-gooing around, happy and satisfied, like a jug that's googling out
buttermilk; and as for the king, he just gazed and gazed down
sorrowful on them new-comers like it give him the stomach-ache in his
very heart to think there could be such frauds and rascals in the
world."

"squshed down like a bluff bank that the river has cut under"

"Blamed if the king didn't have to brace up mighty quick, or he'd a
squshed down like a bluff bank that the river has cut under, it took
him so sudden; and, mind you, it was a thing that was calculated to
make most ANYBODY sqush to get fetched such a solid one as that
without any notice, because how was HE going to know what was tattooed
on the man?"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XXX:

"blubber like a baby"

"It's WELL for you to set there and blubber like a baby--it's fitten
for you, after the way you've acted."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XXXI:

"spun down the river road like a deer"

"The duke he begun to abuse him for an old fool, and the king begun to
sass back, and the minute they was fairly at it I lit out and shook
the reefs out of my hind legs, and spun down the river road like a
deer, for I see our chance; and I made up my mind that it would be a
long day before they ever see me and Jim again."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XXXII:

"like an old hat with the nap rubbed off"

"A rail fence round a two-acre yard; a stile made out of logs sawed
off and up-ended in steps, like barrels of a different length, to
climb over the fence with, and for the women to stand on when they are
going to jump on to a horse; some sickly grass-patches in the big
yard, but mostly it was bare and smooth, like an old hat with the nap
rubbed off; big double log-house for the white folks--hewed logs, with
the chinks stopped up with mud or mortar, and these mud-stripes been
whitewashed some time or another; round-log kitchen, with a big broad,
open but roofed passage joining it to the house; log smoke-house back
of the kitchen; three little log nigger-cabins in a row t'other side
the smoke-house; one little hut all by itself away down against the
back fence, and some outbuildings down a piece the other side;
ash-hopper and big kettle to bile soap in by the little hut; bench by
the kitchen door, with bucket of water and a gourd; hound asleep there
in the sun; more hounds asleep round about; about three shade trees
away off in a corner; some currant bushes and gooseberry bushes in one
place by the fence; outside of the fence a garden and a watermelon
patch; then the cotton fields begins, and after the fields the woods."

"a-beaming and a-smiling like a house afire"

"She stooped down quick at the foot of the bed and give me a pull, and
out I come; and when he turned back from the window there she stood,
a-beaming and a-smiling like a house afire, and I standing pretty meek
and sweaty alongside."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XXXIII:

"his mouth opened up like a trunk"

"I says 'Hold on!' and it stopped alongside, and his mouth opened up
like a trunk, and stayed so; and he swallowed two or three times like
a person that's got a dry throat, and then says:

'I hain't ever done you no harm.  You know that.  So, then, what you
want to come back and ha'nt ME for?"

"like a sheep... like the ram"

"He warn't a boy to meeky along up that yard like a sheep; no, he come
ca'm and important, like the ram."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XXXVII:

"curled him up like a fishing-worm"

"My heart fell down amongst my lungs and livers and things, and a hard
piece of corn-crust started down my throat after it and got met on the
road with a cough, and was shot across the table, and took one of the
children in the eye and curled him up like a fishing-worm, and let a
cry out of him the size of a warwhoop, and Tom he turned kinder blue
around the gills, and it all amounted to a considerable state of
things for about a quarter of a minute or as much as that, and I would
a sold out for half price if there was a bidder."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XLII:

"both of them going it at once, like a cat convention"

"But Tom, he WAS so proud and joyful, he just COULDN'T hold in, and
his tongue just WENT it--she a-chipping in, and spitting fire all
along, and both of them going it at once, like a cat convention; and
she says:

'WELL, you get all the enjoyment you can out of it NOW, for mind I
tell you if I catch you meddling with him again--"

----------------------------------------------------------------------
  METAPHORS
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter I:

"The widow... called me a poor lost lamb"

"The widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she
called me a lot of other names, too, but she never meant no harm by
it."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter II:

"dog-tired"

"My new clothes was all greased up and clayey, and I was dog-tired."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter V:

"a tree-toad white, a fish-belly white." 

"There warn't no color in his face, where his face showed; it was
white; not like another man's white, but a white to make a body sick,
a white to make a body's flesh crawl--a tree-toad white, a fish-belly
white."

"You think you're a good deal of a big-bug"

"Starchy clothes--very.  You think you're a good deal of a big-bug, DON'T you?"

"I'll take you down a peg"

"I'll take you down a peg before I get done with you."

"put in her shovel"

"The widow, hey?--and who told the widow she could put in her shovel
about a thing that ain't none of her business?"

"a hand that was the hand of a hog"

"There's a hand that was the hand of a hog; but it ain't so no more;
it's the hand of a man that's started in on a new life, and'll die
before he'll go back."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter VI:

"A body would a thought he was Adam"

"A body would a thought he was Adam--he was just all mud." 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter VIII:

"I see the moon go off watch, and the darkness begin to blanket the river."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XII:

"towns... nothing but just a shiny bed of lights"

"Every night we passed towns, some of them away up on black hillsides,
nothing but just a shiny bed of lights; not a house could you see.

"the rain poured down in a solid sheet"

The fifth night below St. Louis we had a big storm after midnight,
with a power of thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in a
solid sheet."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XV:

"smoky ghosts of big trees"

"The whooping went on, and in about a minute I come a-booming down on
a cut bank with smoky ghosts of big trees on it, and the current
throwed me off to the left and shot by, amongst a lot of snags that
fairly roared, the currrent was tearing by them so swift.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XVI:

"a powwow of cussing"

"There was a yell at us, and a jingling of bells to stop the engines,
a powwow of cussing, and whistling of steam--and as Jim went overboard
on one side and I on the other, she come smashing straight through the
raft."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter XVIII:

"he was sunshine most always... When he turned into a cloudbank it was awful dark"

"Everybody loved to have him around, too; he was sunshine most
always--I mean he made it seem like good weather. When he turned into
a cloudbank it was awful dark for half a minute, and that was enough;
there wouldn't nothing go wrong again for a week."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER XIX:

"everything smiling in the sun"

"The first thing to see, looking away over the water, was a kind of
dull line--that was the woods on t'other side; you couldn't make
nothing else out; then a pale place in the sky; then more paleness
spreading around; then the river softened up away off, and warn't
black any more, but gray; you could see little dark spots drifting
along ever so far away--trading scows, and such things; and long black
streaks--rafts; sometimes you could hear a sweep screaking; or jumbled
up voices, it was so still, and sounds come so far; and by and by you
could see a streak on the water which you know by the look of the
streak that there's a snag there in a swift current which breaks on it
and makes that streak look that way; and you see the mist curl up off
of the water, and the east reddens up, and the river, and you make out
a log-cabin in the edge of the woods, away on the bank on t'other side
of the river, being a woodyard, likely, and piled by them cheats so
you can throw a dog through it anywheres; then the nice breeze springs
up, and comes fanning you from over there, so cool and fresh and sweet
to smell on account of the woods and the flowers; but sometimes not
that way, because they've left dead fish laying around, gars and such,
and they do get pretty rank; and next you've got the full day, and
everything smiling in the sun, and the song-birds just going it!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

My search strategy: I examined The Project Gutenberg EBook of The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and selected similes and metaphors
that appeared in the text.

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
http://www.siledu.com/hoxi/novel/76.txt

----------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope this is helpful! If anything is unclear or incomplete, please
request clarification; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before
you rate my answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud
firestormzx030-ga rated this answer:5 out of 5 stars and gave an additional tip of: $10.00
Amazing work, a very great help in my analysis of Huckleberry Finn.  I
could not of asked for anything better.

Comments  
Subject: Re: Huckleberry Finn Literary Qualities
From: pinkfreud-ga on 31 Oct 2005 19:10 PST
 
Thank you very much for the kind words, the five stars, and the generous tip!

~pinkfreud

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