Tori
Howard
“Gone are the days of spanking, threats,
and sugar. Now there are therapy, antidepressants, and Splenda” (17).
Kaui
Hart Hemmings does an excellent job in her novel The Descendants using similies to convey to the reader the
connections between animals and humans and humans and the naural Earth
processes around them. There are a million examples of this, and many more of
isolating two enemies into the same grouping, for example “They’re like
missionaries. Mascara thumpers,” (47) in referring to women who believe that
the only way to beauty is through covering up imperfections. Each simile,
metaphor, or cliché employed in the narrator Matthew King’s narration is that
ultimately his ties to the land—thought of his impending deal with Developers
who are about to buy off his whole land-based inheritance—are never far from
his mind. He begins his distraught explanation of current events by stating that
he has, “inheritance issues” (22) and, “subscribe[s] to the idea that behind
every great fortune is a great crime. Isn’t that how the saying goes?” (13). He
begins the process of the novel believing himself a criminal, or in the hands
of dirty money that he can’t wait to drop onto someone else. With land, comes
responsibility.
As he carries the responsibility of his imminently
dying wife and the land he must decide what to do with, he describes himself
as, “like lava, slowly approaching and altering foundations forever.” (117)
Here, Matt directly equates himself to the natural lava that flows freely and
destructively, not caring about victims. Simultaneously, he is the destruction
of all other nature and land that lies in his immediate path as well. The next
simile he engages with is found in relationship to his children and maternal
animals: “I start to walk away from the pier and the three of them follow me. I
feel like a mother duck.” (171) Here he assumes a maternal role through the use
of a mother duck rather than a woman followed by many children showing the
connection between maternal images and nature. Here also is a personal
connection to that image; Matthew is humbled by their blind following—they would
be lost were they to not follow him. And finally, in a depressing scene, he
equates himself to being, “like a cat dragging a rat to the doorstep,” (184)
showing his submission to the greater forces of nature that have brought this “rat”
into his life. His duty has become to return the rat to the dominating woman
figure of the household—similar to how a matriarch may rule peoples long after
her death, or how Mother Nature never ceases to control the greater scheme of
things.
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