Setting
The setting of this story is both familiar and strange at the same time. It is described using metaphor: “Imagine a cartwheel half-mired in muddy water, its hub just clearing the surface. The spokes are the satellite cities that form Metropolitan Toronto: Etobicoke and York to the west; North York in the north; Scarborough and East York to the east. The Toronto city core is the hub.” As far as metaphorically situating the locale in which a story takes place, this description is as helpful as it gets. The narrator asks the reader to imagine something abstract and then provides blueprints for its design.
Cliché
Some metaphorical imagery becomes so overused that it moves to the level of cliché. Ti-Jeanne engages one of these examples during a heated exchange with Tony: “Well, you lie down with dog, you get up with fleas.” This is an acid-tongued barb that directly speaks to a sore spot with Tony. He has gotten himself in deep with the thuggish criminal boss running the city and desperately is trying to get out. The metaphor is intended to remind Tony that he bears responsibility for this situation by initially choosing to associate with criminals.
Medical Jargon
If the average person were to hear a doctor or nurse recommend putting a patient on an immunosuppressant drip such as OKT5, it is unlikely the words would mean much. If they could hear the doctor or nurse thinking: “That was like detonating a bomb to kill a fly” such insight would put the procedure into context. Such is the advantage of reading fiction where one can penetrate into unspoken thoughts and similes. With such power, even the mysteries of the potential consequences of an OKT5 drip become clearer.
Sexuality
Sexuality is rich territory for the utilization of metaphors and similes. Usually, the simpler the simile the better, such as the description of Ti-Jeanne’s thought that the: “cool night air on her skin was like the exhaled breath of a lover.” The comparison is simple and direct, but also just a little poetic. Though easily understood, it also contains just a hint of simile.
The Simplest
Some metaphorical imagery is actually so simple that it can almost seem literal and not figurative at all. “Her grandmother grunted. Ti-Jeanne had given the correct answer, but that grunt was the only acknowledgment she would get. She swallowed her resentment.” Admittedly, there is an element of the literal in this example. Ti-Jeanne probably does actually take a moment of silence to swallow, but it is not literally resentment which is sliding down her throat.
