Student Question

What do the similes "hope springs like a grasshopper" and "like crocuses in April snow" suggest about hope?

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I like the second simile in articulating the transcendent qualities of hope. An April snow is something that reflects a sense of lingering despair.  April should not possess snow as it is a start of summer.  To see snow during April brings about a sense of forlornness, as if to believe that the seasonal change and growth and accompanies it is being denied.  Yet, to see the crocuses emerge despite this snow is something that shows hope as being something transcendent, able to cut through contingent context as a universal quality.  The first one is very straightforward in my mind, as hope being something that moves from place to place, hopping like a grasshopper, pure in its intent.  It reflects a condition of vitality and life in hope.

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"Hope rises like crocuses un April snow" suggests the eternal hope that lies in the human breast has the strength to break through the "winters of our discontent"--to borrow a line from Shakespeare's Richard III.  That a flower has the energy and determination to bloom when snow sits atop the semi-frozen ground is inspiring.

"Hope springs like a grasshopper" suggests that in the midst of the long grass and stretching field of despair or melancholy, an encouraging thought will spring into our hearts and startle us with its renewal of the positive.

Thus, the commonality between these two similes is expressed in this old adage:  "Hope springs eternal in the human breast."  No matter how dire a situation is, there is a way for positive ideas and the solutions of problems to break through and encourage people.

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I find both examples to be plentiful or abundant.

A grasshopper's spring is huge in comparison to its body. It can likely jump 40 times its original height. So maybe hope is something that is much bigger than what we often experience in reality.

A crocus flower grows in all types of climates and it spreads like crazy. There are over 80 varieties of the plant. This demonstrates hope in that it is abundant. These plants can sprout up almost anywhere and survive well, even in the snow, which kills so many flowers. True hope takes on a life of its own and can exist in all kinds of circumstances because it is a state of mind.

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To me, they suggest a couple of different things.

The one about the crocuses in the snow suggests that hope is something that gives us light at the end of the tunnel.  The crocuses come up (giving us hope of spring) while there is still snow on the ground (reason to be pessimistic).  So that simile suggests that hope is like this -- giving us the idea that things will get better.

The one about the grasshopper seems to suggest that hope is hard to catch.  It can be there one minute and then gone the next.  Grasshoppers are like that.

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