In the excerpt below from Mississippi Solo, Eddy Harris uses similes to help readers visualize his experience of rafting on a river at the beginning of a dramatic storm. A simile compares one object or idea to another using “like” or “as”. Read the text. As you read, look out for similes. Here’s one: “Clouds rolled overhead in wild swirls like batter in a bowl.” List two new similes you found in the text. Taken together, what do these comparisons help readers understand about the weather? Think of a time in your life when you experienced serious weather conditions, such as a rainstorm, snow, or extreme heat. Explain what you would want readers to understand about the experience. Finally, write a paragraph describing that weather, using at least three similes to help readers visualize your experience.

Question

In the excerpt below from Mississippi Solo, Eddy Harris uses similes to help readers visualize his experience of rafting on a river at the beginning of a dramatic storm. A simile compares one object or idea to another using “like” or “as”. Read the text. As you read, look out for similes. Here’s one: “Clouds rolled overhead in wild swirls like batter in a bowl.” List two new similes you found in the text. Taken together, what do these comparisons help readers understand about the weather? Think of a time in your life when you experienced serious weather conditions, such as a rainstorm, snow, or extreme heat. Explain what you would want readers to understand about the experience. Finally, write a paragraph describing that weather, using at least three similes to help readers visualize your experience.
The day turned gray and strange. Clouds rolled overhead in wild swirls like batter in a bowl. I could see the rainstorm forming off in the distance but swirling rapidly toward me like a dark gray avalanche. I felt the river dip down and up—a shallow dale in the water. I passed from the cool moisture surrounding me and into a pocket of thin air hot and dry. It was as though a gap had opened in the clouds and the sun streamed through to boil the water and heat up this isolated patch of river a scant thirty yards long. My first thought was to shed a shirt and stay cool, but when I passed through the far curtain of the insulated air, I knew I had better do just the opposite. I drifted and donned my yellow rain suit and hood. The sky above grew serious and advanced in my direction with the speed of a hurricane. Looking for a place to land, I scanned the shore. . . . I looked across to the other side of the river half a mile away. No way could I have made it over there. Halfway across and the wind would have kicked up and trapped me in the middle.

The leading edge of the storm came, and the first sprinkles passed over like army scouts. The wooded area lasted only another hundred yards or so, and I thought I could easily get there before the rains arrived. I could then turn left and find ground to pull out and wait out the storm.

GPT-4o mini · Answer

In the excerpt from *Mississippi Solo* by Eddy Harris, two new similes you can find are: 1. "Clouds rolled overhead in wild swirls like batter in a bowl." 2. "The sky above grew serious and advanced in my direction with the speed of a hurricane." Together, these comparisons help readers understand the intensity and foreboding nature of the approaching storm. The imagery suggests a chaotic and dramatic weather system, feeling almost alive and threatening, emphasizing the sudden change from calm to impending danger. Thinking back on my own experiences, I once encountered a severe thunderstorm while camping. The skies turned dark and foreboding, and the wind picked up with a ferocity that rattled the trees. I would want readers to understand the mixture of fear and awe during that moment—the power of nature and how quickly it can shift. Here is a paragraph describing that weather experience with similes: The sky darkened like an inkwell spilling its contents, as clouds gathered and churned overhead, heavy and ominous. The wind howled through the trees like a wild beast, shaking branches and rustling leaves with an urgency that sent chills down my spine. Raindrops began to fall, sharp and cold, like a barrage of tiny darts hitting the ground, each one heralding the arrival of the storm. As I huddled under my tarp, the world around me transformed into a cacophony of nature’s wrath, reminding me how small and vulnerable we really are against the forces beyond our control.