Gossip
The narrator engages a creative metaphor to bring up the subject of gossip. It is especially effective because the imagery is situated within the direct and explicit life experience of the first-person narrator. Often a metaphorical image will exist outside of this real and bring attention to itself as an unlikely piece of figurative language. That is not the case here:
“I can't stand these favela women, they want to know everything. Their tongues are like chicken feet. Scratching at everything.”
The City and the Slums
Imagery a bit more poet and fanciful—verging on stepping outside the boundaries of experience—is utilized to give the big city an appropriate bit of window dressing. The favela also comes into the game here: it translates into a description of the lower economic order of things, more commonly known as the slums:
“Oh, Sao Paulo! A queen that vainly shows her skyscrapers that are her crown of gold. All dressed up in velvet and silk but with cheap stockings underneath—the favela.”
The Stranger in the Mirror
The narrator’s hard life leads to a moment of contemplation of ugliness spurred by a mirror. Looking into a mirror can be a hard thing; an exercise in steely will to keep going. The moment is not a highlight for the narrator or the reader, for that matter. The metaphorical imagery is visceral, however:
“Today I looked in a mirror. I was horrified. My face is almost like my departed mother…I went back to my filthy shack. I looked at the aging hovel. The black and rotten slats. I thought: it's just like my life.”
The Miracle of Writing
The very act of writing really can be a miraculous exercise. Just as reading can sweep a person away from the drudgery of their lives into the fantastical fictions of made-up people, so can the act of writing accomplish this semi-magical transformation. Of course, when the writing is going badly, it the result can be just the opposite of that described here:
“I got out of bed to write. When I write I think I live in a golden castle that shines in the sunlight. The windows are silver and the panes are diamonds.”
Commercializing the Body
The narrator gets a little philosophical when it comes to the issue of selling one’s body. The metaphor seems a little off, however, suggesting the possibility that something or other may have gotten lost in translation:
“Prostitution is the moral defeat of a woman. It's like a building that fell.”
