Aging
The story opens in the present with the narrator visiting his aging parents. "Retirement had changed them, shrunk them." This shrinkage is actually literal—he describes them as stooping octogenarians. By the end of the story, however, it will become apparent that this shrinkage is meant more as metaphor than physical attribution. The consequences of growing old is that they have shrunk in intellectual and cultural status.
Lulling
The story proper begins with the elderly mother mentioning a name from the distant past which she does not expect to even register with her son. "My mind had been submerged in the foggy lull of my parents’ storytelling, and I struggled now with the sharp awakening of memory." The metaphorical imagery here describes that fog of half-listening which can suddenly dissipate without warning. The mechanism of dissipation is the activation of the son's memory. The metaphor accurately conveys that state of automatic listening that suddenly becomes actual hearing.
The Outsider Inside
Important to the narrative is that the narrator's parents had been, before their shrinkage, well-educated and privileged. And big readers. "I sometimes felt like an interloper in our house." This sensation of being an outsider inside his own house carries a definite irony. The metaphor is a self-description of a writer who has no interest in reading. This stands in stark opposition to his parents who are voracious consumers of books.
Comfortably Wise
The flashback to childhood which occupies most of the narrative is primarily a portrait of the narrator getting to know an expendable houseboy as friend and mentor. "Raphael knew what really mattered; his wisdom lay easy on his skin." This metaphor is quite poetic. It conveys the narrator's boyish understanding that class does ont necessarily equate with superiority and inferiority. It also suggests a developing awareness of something more personal and intimate.
Apollo
The title of the story is a term used to describe conjunctivitis. It is Raphael who first contracts the condition and the narrator's parents take steps to try to prevent it from spreading to their son. Ultimately, it does just that and the parents—especially the mother—overreact. Eventually, it becomes clear that Apollo is not just pinkeye but a metaphor for exposing their son to the harsh truths about the illogic of judging people based on class differences.
