Metaphor: The Cottage
When Cal is secretly living in the dilapidated cottage on the Mortons' property, he must keep a covert existence, spying on Marcella from afar and trying not to draw attention to himself. At one point he makes the comparison of the cottage and main house to planetary bodies, saying he feels that "the house was the earth and the cottage the moon orbiting it." This is meant to express how Cal feels distant from Marcella, knowing that they can never fully come together because of his "sin." Yet, like the magnetic pull of the moon, he feels a constant and enormous attraction to her.
Simile: Losing Everything
After the UVF army sets fire to the McCluskey house, Cal returns to retrieve his gun and feels saddened to see that basically all of their possessions have been burnt to a crisp. Cal feels particularly disheartened to find his guitar melted. On the one hand, it is tragic, particularly the way it will later impact Shamie and send him into a depression. On the other hand, Cal views the event as a chance for a fresh start and likens the loss of everything as the act of "burning a wound to cleanse it."
Metaphor: Cal's Shame
Cal notices a new woman working at the library for the first time and learns that her name is Marcella. He makes the connection to the wife of the police officer he helped to kill, who has the same name. He starts wondering if this is the same Marcella. When Shamie confirms this for him later at dinner, Cal feels the heaviness of his crime weigh on him; it was already there, but seeing the widow makes it all the more real for him. He goes to his bedroom to "eat the ashes of what he had done," a metaphor to signify Cal's shameful reflection on his past.
Simile: Cal as Quasimodo
When Cal is alone in the Mortons' house, fantasizing about Marcella, he considers how he often feels ugly and inadequate next to her. He describes himself as "Quasimodo," believing the "ugliness of what he had done showed in his face." Quasimodo is the protagonist of the famous story The Hunchback of Notre Dame and thus aptly expresses Cal's feeling of disfigurement by his criminal actions. This simile reveals Cal's insecurity and sense of hopelessness about pursuing the one thing he desires the most.
Simile: Feeling Buried
When Cal and Marcella go blackberry picking, Cal is struck with simultaneous feelings of joy from spending time with his crush and of despair at the impossibility that they will ever come together due to his crime. Cal can't help but to ask Marcella about the worst thing she ever did, testing the waters for a possible confession of his own sin. Yet when Marcella reveals a fairly benign deed in comparison to his own, Cal realizes that he can't be honest. Trying to make up a lesser sin to tell her about, he feels as if he is "slipping down a wall of ice" and then lying at the "bottom of a gully, buried in an avalanche of his own making." This simile shows Cal's sense of being in over his head, having cornered himself into a situation from which there is no way to gracefully exit.
