The Bean Trees: Stunning Similes

“Believe me in those days the girls were dropping by the wayside like seeds off a poppyseed bun” (Bean 3).

“The clouds were pink and fat and hilarious-looking, like the hippo ballerinas in a Disney movie” (Bean 35).

“She felt like such a sneak, letting on as though her marriage was just fine. It was like presenting her mother and grandmother with a pretty Christmas package to take back with them, but nothing but tissue paper inside” (Bean 56).

“He could be there, or not, and it hardly made a difference. Like a bug or a mouse scratching in the cupboards at night—you could get up and chase after it, or just go back to sleep and let it be. This was good, she decided” (Bean 63).

“On TV I saw them pulling the bodies out frozen stiff with their knees and arms bent like those little plastic cowboys that are supposed to be riding horses, but they when you lose the horse they’re useless” (Bean 74-75).

“We were flattened and sprawled across the rocks like a troop of lizards stoned on the sun, feeling too good to move” (Bean 91).

"It’s hard to explain, but a certain kind of horror is beyond tears. Tears would be like worrying about watermarks on the furniture when the house is burning down" (Bean 136).

“…the residue of Red Hot Mama had a way of sticking around, as pesty and persistent as a chaperone at a high school dance” (Bean 151).

“Sadness is more like a head cold—with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer” (Bean 173).

~Father Nature, Editor