Mama the Warship (Simile)
But next to mama, I would always feel lumbering and clumsy. Even in late pregnancy, she moved like a galleon in full sail, stately and calm, her belly leading the way (p. 111).
In this simile, Meena likens her mother’s movement to that of a warship—a “galleon”—ennobling her mother’s pregnancy: for Meena, a mother carrying a baby is a “stately” act. Throughout Anita and Me, Meena uses language to heighten the value of domestic activity, bringing the mundane closer to the epic.
Mother's Love (Metaphor)
Mama knelt down on the hard floor and cupped my face in her hands, forcing me to look into her eyes. Those eyes, those endless mud brown pools of sticky, bottomless love (Meena, p. 60).
In this quotation, Meena uses metaphor to emphasize her mother’s unconditional love, which persists even when Meena makes mistakes (for context, Mrs. Kumar has just expressed concern over Meena’s lying). The metaphor shows that love need not be perfect: love can be messy, “muddy” and “sticky,” and lasting all the same.
Stick Men Gang (Simile)
[…] all of them were now wearing this uniform of short denim jackets, tight jeans held up with braces, and huge clumpy boots. They looked like a child’s drawing, stick men with exaggerated huge heads and huge feet (p. 174).
When Sam Lowbridge and his gang adopt skinhead fashion, Meena makes light of their new appearance and compares them to a “child’s drawing.” This comparison highlights the incongruous nature of Sam and his gang: they can simultaneously be childish, even silly—they are, in fact, only young teenagers—while also posing legitimate threats, being perpetrators of hate crimes. More broadly, it is one of many examples in Anita and Me where the comedic coexists with the tragic.
Angry Goddess (Simile/Metaphor)
All the pain in my head crystallised into two beams of pure energy which shot out of my eyes and which I turned on Sam’s gang, expecting to see them shrivel like slugs under salt, like metal under Superman’s laser x-ray gaze. I was ten feet tall, I had a hundred arms, like the goddess on top of the fridge in Auntie Shaila’s house, I was swathed in red and gold silk like a new bride (p. 228).
This quotation is full of complementary figures of speech, all of which point toward Meena’s growing self-confidence. She combines her English heritage with her Indian heritage—being both Superman and a Hindu deity; she allows herself to be angry and assertive, without sacrificing her femininity—being both a fighting hero and an elegantly dressed bride. After a long struggle with insecurity, here is Meena’s emphatic acceptance of her individual identity.
Shadow of Mortality (Metaphor)
I now knew I was not a bad girl, a mixed-up girl, a girl with no name or no place. The place in which I belonged was wherever I stood and there was nothing stopping me simply moving forward and claiming each resting place as home. This sense of displacement I had always carried round like a curse shrivelled into insignificance against the shadow of mortality cast briefly by a hospital anglepoise lamp, by the last wave of a gnarled brown hand. (p. 303).
In this passage, Meena uses two flashing images, the light from an anglepoise lamp and the wave of a gnarled brown hand, to evoke two recent memories of loss: Robert’s death in the hospital and Nanima’s departure to India, respectively. Through metaphor, comparing “mortality” and loss to a “shadow,” Meena represents loss as something physical yet intangible: like a shadow, loss shapes and shades the real world, but cannot be touched or altered. And so, having learned that loss is a reality (through Robert’s death and Nanima’s departure), but also that loss is unalterable (like a shadow), Meena focuses her attention on the present moment: “simply moving forward and claiming each resting place as home.”
